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OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

A  Manual  for  Prospective  Rhodes  Scholars 

EDITED   FOR 

THE  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION  OF 
AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARS 

BY 

LAURENCE  A.  CROSBY 

AND 

FRANK  AYDELOTTE 


NEW  YORK 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
AMERICAN  BRANCH:  35  WEST  3 2nd  STREET 

LONDON,  TORONTO,  MELBOURNE  AND  BOMBAY 
T923 


Copyright,  1922, 

By  Oxford  University  Press 

American  Branch 


To 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD 

mjd  to  the  memory  of 
her  heroic  Lover 

CECIL  JOHN  RHODES 

this  book  is  reverently  dedicated 
by  Americans  whom  his  generosity 
has  enrolled  among  her  Children 


50i8V^) 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface  ix 

I.  The  History  of  the  University.   By  C.  F. 

Tucker  Brooke i 

II.  The  Organization  of  the  University  and 

Colleges.    By  L.  A.  Crosby 29 

III.  Admission  and  Standing.    By  F.  J.  VVylie      40 

/IV.  The  Oxford  System  of  Education.    By 

I  L.  A.  Crosby 4 

\V.  Courses  of  Study:  The  B.A.  Degree  and 

THE  Honour  Schools.    By  L.  A.  Crosby      53 

\  I.  Courses  of  Study:   Advanced  or   Post- 
graduate DEGREfes.    By  L.  A.   Crosby     102 

VII.  The  Colleges  of  Oxford:  Their  History 

AND  Characteristics.    By  Joseph  Wells     117 

Vm.  Social  Life  and  Activities  at  the  Uni- 
versity.   By  R.  P.  Coffin 151 

IX.  Cecil  John  Rhodes.    By  George  Van  Sant- 

voord 188 

X.  History  of  the  Operation  of  the  Rhodes 
Scholarships  in  the  United  States. 
By  Frank  Aydelotte 211 

appendix 

A.  Libraries,  Museums,  and  Other  Univer- 

sity Institutions.   By  C.  C.  Brinton   .    .     227 

B.  Expenses  at  Oxford.    By  F.  J.  Wylie  .    .     234 

C.  University  and  College  Discipline     .    .     239 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

D.  University  Courts     242 

E.  The  American  University  Union  ....  244 

F.  List  of  Colleges,  Halls,  and  Societies 

OF  Oxford  University 245 

G.  Table   of    Examinations   for   the    B.A. 

Degree 246 

H,  List  of  Professors,  Readers,  Lecturers 

and  Tutors  1921-22 249 

L  College  Fellows  and  Fellowships  .    .    .  255 

J.  Regulations   Governing   the   American 

Rhodes  Scholarships 258 

K.  Select  List  of  Books  for  Reference  .    .  265 

Index 271 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  View  of  Oxford  from  the  Air   .    .    .    Frontispiece 

The  New  Loggan  Print  of  Christ  Church        .  8 

Magdalen  College  from  the  Cherwell    ...  25 

Mertox  College  Library 119 

The    Radcliffe    and    St.    Mary's    Spire    from 

Brasenose  Old  Quad 122 

Garden  Front  of  St.  John's 129 

Eights  AND  Barges 171 

Trinity  College  Lime  Walk 179 

Cecil  John  Rhodes 189 

Rhodes     Marching     in     Procession     to     the 

Encaenia,  1899 203 


PREFACE 

The  chief  aim  of  this  book  is  to  present  in  a  concise, 
accurate  and  readable  form  the  more  important  facts 
about  Oxford  University  which  are  of  interest  particularly 
to  prospective  Rhodes  Scholars  and  generally  to  the 
academical  public. 

It  is  in  a  measure  a  descendant  of  a  smaller  volume 
written  and  compiled  in  1907  by  two  American  Rhodes 
Scholars,  R.  F.  Scholz  and  S.  K.  Hornbeck,  and  entitled, 
Oxford  and  the  Rhodes  Scholarships.  At  that  time  the 
Rhodes  Scholarships  had  been  in  operation  but  three 
years.  Messrs.  Scholz  and  Hornbeck  creditably  per- 
formed a  valuable  service  in  thus  making  available  to 
prospective  American  students  much  information  about 
the  University  which  had  been  theretofore  obtainable 
only  with  difficulty,  if  at  all.  Their  book  was  published 
by  the  Oxford  University  Press  in  an  edition  long  since 
exhausted. 

Another  volume  which  formerly  set  forth  many  of  the 
facts  herein  presented  was  the  Oxford  University  Hand- 
book, a  semi-official  publication  issued  from  time  to  time 
by  the  Oxford  University  Press.  The  last  edition  (1914) 
is  now  out  of  print. 

Since  1914  many  changes  have  occurred  at  Oxford. 
To  name  but  two:  Greek  is  no  longer  an  absolute  re- 
quirement for  admission;  and  women  students  (pre- 
viously admitted  only  to  lectures  and  examinations)  have 
now  full  University  privileges  and  may  receive  degrees. 


X  PREFACE 

Likewise,    important   changes   have   been   made   in   the 
administration  of  the  Rhodes  Scholarships. 

Thus,  both  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  earlier 
sources  of  information,  and  their  inaccuracy  in  the  light 
of  the  present,  have  made  the  publication  of  a  new  book 
of  this  nature  imperative. 

This  book,  however,  is  not  a  new  edition  of  the  Scholz- 
and-Hornbeck  volume  or  of  the  Handbook.  The  editors 
have  endeavored  to  offer  a  book  of  somewhat  wider  scope 
and  interest  than  either.  On  the  other  hand,  the  present 
m.anual  is  not  in  any  way  official  or  semi-official. 

Matters  such  as  examination  requirements,  and  quali- 
fications for  degrees,  standing,  etc.,  have  been  prepared 
with  reference  to  the  most  recent  official  or  semi-official 
publications  of  the  University;  and  their  accuracy  has 
been  checked  by  persons  in  immediate  touch  with  Oxford. 
While,  where  possible,  the  formal  statutory  language  has 
been  departed  from,  it  is  believed  that  the  statements 
made  in  lieu  thereof  are  substantially  correct.  The 
explanatory  notes  referring  to  the  several  Honour 
Schools  (Chapter  IV)  were  originally  written  by  Rhodes 
Scholars  familiar  by  actual  experience  with  the  respective 
Schools  discussed,  and  were  published  in  the  American 
Oxonian  for  April,  1920. 

In  addition  to  such  technical  but  important  topics,  the 
editors  have  included  chapters  on  the  history  of  the 
University  and  Colleges,  on  social  life  and  activities,  on 
Rhodes,  and  the  history  of  the  American  Scholarships; 
all  of  which  may  be  of  general  interest. 

Although  acknowledgment  has  been  made  to  its  author 
at  the  head  of  each  chapter,  the  editors  wish  to  thank 
especially,  on  behalf  of  all  Am.erican  Oxonians,  Mr.  Jo- 


PREFACK 


XI 


seph  Wells,  M.A.,  Warden  of  Wadhani  College,  who 
kindly  consented  to  write  the  chapter  on  the  Colleges. 
In  this,  many  readers  will  be  reminded  of  his  de- 
servedly well-known  books  upon  Oxford  and  its  life. 
They  also  acknowledge  their  debt  to  Mr.  Francis  J. 
Wylie,  M  A.,  Oxford  Secretary  to  the  Rhodes  Trustees, 
who  contributed  the  chapter  on  Admission  and  Standing, 
and  the  appendix  on  Expenses,  subjects  on  which  he 
writes  with  unquestioned  authority,  and  to  Mr.  E.  S. 
Craig  of  Magdalen,  Assistant  Registrar  and  Secretary 
to  the  Boards  of  Faculties,  who  has  read  all  the  proofs 
and  made  invaluable  corrections  based  on  the  latest 
information  about  the  regulations  governing  the  Univer- 
sity— a  task  which  no  one  else  could  have  done,  not 
merely  so  well,  but  at  all. 

The  remainder  of  the  book  is  the  work  of  Americans 
who  at  one  time  or  another  have  been  at  Oxford  as 
Rhodes  Scholars.  For  them,  and  for  other  Rhodes  Schol- 
ars who  have  aided  its  publication,  the  reward  lies  only 
in  the  pleasure  of  assisting  (be  it  ever  so  little)  in  carrying 
out  the  great  plan  of  Rhodes.  That  plan  may  be  made 
more  effective  by  the  fuller  recognition  and  juster  appre- 
ciation in  America  of  the  opportunities  and  advantages 
offered  by  the  Rhodes  Scholarships;  and  also,  on  some 
hoped-for  day,  by  the  establishment  of  similar  scholar- 
ships to  bring  British  students  to  the  United  States.  No 
Rhodes  Scholar  is  today  so  powerful  as  to  be  the  Ameri- 
can Rhodes.  But  each  believes  in  and  desires  to  promote 
to  his  best  ability  the  fullest  success  of  the  Trust  in  whose 
great  benefits  he  has  shared.  And  each  cherishes  his 
Oxford  memories. 

It  was  only  six  months  ago  that  news  came  from  England 


xii  PREFACE 

of  the  death  of  Sir  George  Parkin,  who  retired  in  1920 
from  his  post  as  Organizing  Secretary  of  the  Rhodes 
Trust.  Rhodes  Scholars  all  over  the  world  who  have 
honored  and  loved  him  will  see  in  his  death  the  definite 
ending  of  the  first  and  most  difficult  period  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Scholarships.  Almost  his  last  official  act 
was  to  recommend  that  the  local  responsibility  for  the 
Scholarships  be  entrusted  to  the  ex-Rhodes  Scholars 
themselves  in  all  the  countries  which  participate  in  the 
scheme,  and  the  era  of  new  interest  and  enthusiasm  which 
followed  is  the  best  possible  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  his 
decision.  To  aid  in  carrying  out  that  trust  and  to  further 
in  some  measure  the  work  which  Sir  George  Parkin 
so  well  began  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume. 


L.  A.  C. 
F.  A. 


January,  1923 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

By  C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke,  B.Litt.,  West  Virginia  and 
St.  John's,  '04,  Professor  of  English,  Yale  University 

Oxford  University  was  never  founded;  it  grew. 
All  that  can  be  said  with  much  assurance  of  its  earUest 
history  is  that  the  University  long  antedates  any  of  the 
Colleges  and  Halls  which  later  came  to  make  it  up,  and 
that  it  ranks  in  antiquity  second  only  to  Paris  among 
the  universities  of  northern  Europe.  Eight  hundred 
years  it  has  of  recorded  activity.  In  1133,  a  Parisian 
scholar,  Robert  Pullus,  or  Pullein,  was  delivering  at 
Oxford  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  Bible  which  made  a 
stir  among  the  students  and  gained  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment for  the  lecturer.  A  few  years  later  Vacarius,  an 
eminent  Italian  graduate  of  Bologna,  lectured  on  Roman 
law,  introducing  a  then  new  branch  of  study,  which  is 
still  one  of  the  fundamental  parts  of  the  Oxford  curricu- 
lum. 

Till  near  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Oxford 
University  was  a  shifting  mass  of  scholars  and  masters, 
unsolidified  as  yet  by  the  possession  of  public  buildings  or 
distinct  corporate  privileges.  Students  lodged  in  towns- 
men's houses,  and  heard  lectures  in  their  masters'  private 
rooms  or  in  monastic  halls.  Such  conditions  made  for 
impermanence  and  turmoil.  Sanguinary  brawls  against 
citizens  or  Jews  were  the  rule;    and  where  there  was  so 


2  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

little  in  the  way  of  a  fixed  stake,  the  insubstantial  bonds 
that  fastened  the  University  at  Oxford  were  constantly 
on  the  point  of  snapping.  Bequests  at  this  period  were 
commonly  made  to  the  University,  at  Oxford,  or  wher- 
ever else  it  might  later  happen  to  be  situated.  A  riot 
over  the  murder  of  a  girl  by  a  student,  in  1208,  caused 
the  whole  volatile  body  of  scholars  to  evaporate,  and 
came  near  to  extinguishing  the  University.  Another 
riot,  in  1264,  drove  the  students  to  fold  their  tents  and 
swarm  to  Northampton,  with  the  idea  of  joining  malcon- 
tents from  Cambridge  to  set  up  a  new  university.  The 
"great  riot"  of  February,  1298,  and  that  of  St.  Scholas- 
tica's  Day  (Feb.  10,  1354)  amounted  to  civil  war.  The 
number  of  embattled  "clerks"  on  the  former  occasion 
was  three  thousand,  and  rustics  from  all  the  neighboring 
countryside  were  enlisted  to  fill  the  ranks  of  their  adver- 
saries. 

Between  about  1291  and  1335  arose  the  famous 
"Stamford  schism".  Religious  differences,  accentuated 
by  hostility  between  northern  and  southern  students, 
impelled  the  northerners  to  seek  in  Stamford  (Lincoln- 
shire) a  more  congenial  environment.  The  depravity  of 
Oxford  life  was  cited  in  justification  of  the  secession, 
which,  the  migrants  informed  Edward  III  (in  a  French 
letter),  was  "by  reason  of  many  quarrels,  bickerings,  and 
fights  which  have  long  been  and  still  are  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxenford,  whereby  great  damages,  plots, 
deaths,  murders,  maimings,  and  robberies  have  many 
times  occurred."  Only  the  sternest  application  of  royal 
force  finally  broke  up  the  incipient  University  of  Stam- 
ford, saving  Oxford  and  Cambridge  from  a  serious  rival. 
The  fear  of  secession  lasted  long.     As  late  as  1827  all 


HISTORY  3 

candidates  for  Oxford  degrees  were  still  obliged  to 
take  oath  that  they  would  neither  deliver  nor  listen  to 
academic  lectures  at  Stamford. 

In  spite  of  these  disorders,  and  partly  in  consequence 
of  them,  the  thirteenth  century  saw  a  vast  growth  of  the 
University.  The  two  repositories  of  actual  power — the 
King  and  the  Church — both  had  excellent  reason  to 
encourage  and  conciliate  the  Oxford  clerks,  and  usually 
they  did  not  hesitate  to  take  the  part  of  the  latter  as 
against  the  townsmen  or  the  Jews.  The  normal  result 
of  a  town-and-gown  riot,  or  a  threatened  secession  of 
scholars,  was  either  clerical  excommunication  of  the  town 
or  civic  disfranchisement,  to  be  annulled  only  on  the 
humbling  of  the  city  officers  and  the  concession  of  further 
privileges  to  the  University,  which  thus  gradually 
gained  much  in  money,  in  police  jurisdiction,  and  in 
prestige.  The  City  suffered  materially  as  well  as  in  the 
pride  of  its  officials.  It  has  been  said  that  in  order  to 
become  the  home  of  a  great  university,  Oxford  sacri- 
ficed in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  the  posi- 
tion it  had  held  previously  as  a  place  of  primary  political 
and  commercial  importance. 

The  growth  of  the  University  was  greatly  fostered, 
during  the  same  period,  by  the  newly  founded  orders  of 
Dominican  and  Franciscan  Friars.  Bands  of  these — 
Black  Friars  and  Grey  Friars  respectively — flocked  to 
Oxford  in  the  early  thirteenth  century,  and  opened 
friaries  which  soon  became  vital  centres  of  the  educa- 
tional system.  The  Dominicans  ultimately  grew  domi- 
neering, and  before  they  were  subdued  nearly  disrupted 
the  whole  structure  of  university  discipline.  The 
Franciscan  culture,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  to  have 


4  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

coalesced  most  beneficially  with  the  spirit  of  the  place. 
Three  stupendous  scholars  of  the  thirteenth  century — 
than  whom  Europe  produced  no  greater — were  Francis- 
can Oxonians:  Bishop  Grosseteste  (d.  1253),  Roger 
Bacon  (d.  1294),  and  Duns  Scotus  (d.  1308). 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  there 
arose  slowly  the  first  suggestions  of  that  dual  academic 
system — University  and^Colleges^^jKhich— has  since  so 
distinguished  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Three_jQxford 
coUegesi:^lJmversit>^^^  and  Merton — contend  for 

the  honor  of  having  instituted_the-coUegiate  idea  in 
EnglisK~educatiQn: — It  was  Merton  which  first  got 
actually  under  way,  with  the  most  generous  endowment 
and  the  most  practical  and  far-sighted  constitution.  It 
was  founded  in  a  series  of  statutes  of  gift,  between  1262 
and  1274,  by  Walter  de  Merton,  a  self-made  man,  who 
rose  to  be  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  and  Lord  Chan- 
cellor under  Henry  III,  and  ultimately  Bishop  of  Roches- 
ter. University  College  had  its  germ  in  the  bequest  by 
William  of  Durham,  who  died  in  1249,  of  310  marks 
(about  200  pounds)  for  the  perpetual  maintenance  of 
ten  or  more  "masters"  at  the  University.  The  terms  of 
this  endowment  were  not  put  into  actual  effect  till 
1280.  Balliol  derives  its  existence  from  Sir  John  de 
Balliol,  father  of  the  King  of  Scotland,  who  in  1260 
made  a  penitential  vow  to  support  poor  scholars  at  the 
University.  It  was  his  widow,  Dervorguilla,  who  in 
1282  gave  his  benefaction  a  permanent  and  definite 
character.  (The  oldest  Cambridge  college,  Peterhouse, 
dates  from  1284.) 

The  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  at  Oxford  a 
period  of  splendid  activity.    Hardly  Paris,  even,  enjoyed 


HISTORY  5 

greater  prestige  throughout  Europe,  and  students  flocked 
to  the  premier  English  university  in  such  numbers  that 
a  contemporary  writer  ventured  to  estimate  the  total  aca- 
demic population  at  thirty  thousand* — an  impossible 
figure,  of  course,  even  when  all  servants  and  casual 
hangers-on  are  included.  Dante  himself  is  reported  to 
have  studied  theology  at  Oxford,  and  great  numbers  of 
Italian  and  French  scholars  migrated  thither;  but  the 
majority  of  students  from  overseas  came  naturally  from 
Ireland.  The  presence  of  Irish  clerks  thenceforward 
becomes  a  notable  factor  in  internal  conditions  at  the 
University,  though  they  seem  in  general  to  have  produced 
more  heat  than  light.  In  this  halcyon  time  of  the  early 
fourteenth  century  were  founded  Exeter  College  (1316), 
Oriel  (1324),  and  Queen's  (1340),  the  last  two  under  direct 
royal  patronage. 

The  visitation  of  the  Great  Plague  in  1349  wrought 
havoc  in  Oxford.  With  the  plague  a  decline  set  in;  but 
the  general  gloom  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  is 
relieved  by  the  creation  of  one  of  the  most  magnificent  of 
all  the  foundations,  New  College  (1379).  This  was  the 
more  than  princely  work  of  the  great  architect-Bishop  of 
Winchester,  William  of  Wykeham,  the  builder  of  Wind- 
sor Castle  and  founder  of  Winchester  School. 

By  the  time  of  Chaucer's  death  in  1400,  it  will  be  seen, 
Oxford  already  possessed  a  number  of  its  present  col- 
leges and  many  of  the  statutes  and  customs  that  still 
govern  it.  Its  former  unhoused  condition  had  been 
largely  remedied ;  some  of  the  chief  architectural  beauties 
of  the  University  were  already  in  existence — notably, 

*  Probably  the  highest  reasonable  estimate  of  University  mem- 
bers at  this  period  is  4,000. 


6  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Merton  and  New  College  and  St.  Mary's  Church,  a  part 
of  which  served  the  University  as  an  assembly  hall  (House 
of  Congregation).  The  municipal  structures,  however, 
such  as  St.  Michael's  Church,  the  Wall  and  Castle,  still 
were  more  imposing  than  the  collegiate,  and  the  great 
body  of  students  still  lived  poorly  as  boarders  in  citizens' 
houses  or  in  unendowed  private  halls.  Chaucer  himself, 
who  is  traditionally  reported  to  have  lived  nearby  at 
Woodstock,  has  left  two  priceless  portraits  of  the  poor 
students  of  his  time.  One,  the  Clerk  of  Oxenford  of  the 
Prologue,  is  a  theologian,  meek,  bookish,  and  ascetic. 
The  other.  Master  Nicholas  of  the  Miller's  Tale,  is  a 
senior  student  in  the  sciences,  occupying  a  room  in  the 
house  of  a  well-to-do  carpenter,  where  he  is  the  sole 
lodger.  He  is  devoted  to  astrology  and  mathematics, 
musical,  well-dressed,  and  mild  to  look  upon,  though 
capable  of  guileful  pranks ;  and  he  is  persoiia  grata  to  his 
host  and  hostess  for  all  his  knavery.  From  this  tale  and 
its  Cambridge  counterpart,  the  Reeve's  Tale,  one  gets  a 
truer  picture  of  normal  town  and  gown  relations  than 
from  the  riot  records  and  the  academic  statutes. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  education  declined  in  Eng- 
land as  much  as  literature.  Political  subserviency  and 
divided  aims  hampered  the  freedom  of  teaching  during 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  The  most  notable  events  of 
the  reigns  of  Henry  VI,  and  his  successors  till  the  end  of 
this  time,  were  not  intellectual  but  material :  the  acqui- 
sition from  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester  of  the  first 
great  library  the  University  had  possessed;  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  Oxford  press,  which  was  certainly  the 
second  in  England,  and  if  the  date  on  its  earliest  volume 
(1468)  be  correct,  actually  antedated  Caxton's  press  at 


HISTORY  7 

Westminster;  and  the  foundation  of  four  more  colleges. 
The  last  were  all  due  to  the  munificence  of  wealthy 
bishops,  whose  methods  and  motives  in  college-building 
often  suggest  those  of  recent  American  industrial  million- 
aires. In  1427  Lincoln  College  was  founded  by  Richard 
Fleming,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  an  over-zealous  and  unpopu- 
lar detester  of  heresy.  In  1437  Henry  Chichele, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  statesman  and  diplomat, 
instituted  two  colleges.  All  Souls  and  St.  Bernard's,  the 
latter  of  which  was  in  1555  merged  in  St.  John's.  In  1458 
William  Waynfllete,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  added  the 
crowning  glory  of  Magdalen. 

The  next  century  was  very  different.  The  so-called 
English  Renaissance,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  was 
largely  made  in  Oxford.  The  leaders  in  the  movement  to 
introduce  the  "new  learning"  in  place  of  the  old  scholas- 
ticism were  three  Oxonians:  William  Grocyne  of  New 
College  and  Magdalen,  "the  first  Englishman  who  taught 
Greek  to  his  fellow  countrymen  in  his  native  land"; 
Thomas  Linacre  of  All  Souls,  founder  of  modern  medical 
science  in  England,  but  hardly  less  famous  as  a  Grecian; 
and  John  Colet,  the  apostle  of  liberal  theology  at  Oxford 
and  founder  of  St.  Paul's  School  in  London.  A  measure 
of  the  diversity  and  power  of  the  influences  at  this  time 
operant  at  the  University  is  gained  when  one  adds  to  the 
men  just  mentioned  three  other  still  greater  alumni: 
William  Tyndall,  the  reformer  and  Bible-translator; 
Cardinal  Wolsey;  and  Sir  Thomas  More.  Erasmus,  who 
himself  studied  at  Oxford  between  1497  and  1500,  has 
left  a  classic  characterization  of  four  of  these  leaders: 
"When  I  listen  to  my  friend  Colet,  I  seem  to  be  listening 
to  Plato  himself.    Who  does  not  admire  in  Grocyne  the 


8  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

perfection  of  his  training?  What  can  be  more  acute,  more 
profound,  or  more  refined,  than  the  judgment  of  Linacre? 
What  has  nature  ever  fashioned  softer,  or  sweeter,  or 
pleasanter,  than  the  disposition  of  Thomas  More?" 

Three  new  colleges  arose  during  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIH^^-  Brasenose  (1509),  Corpus  Christi  (1516),  and 
Wolsey's  magnificent  establishment,  first  known  as  Car- 
dinal College  (1524),  but  later  renamed  Christ  Church 
(1546)  by  the  King.  The  spirit  of  More  and  Erasmus  is 
particularly  evident  in  the  enlightened  statutes  of 
Corpus,  which  has  remained  since  a  special  shrine  of  the 
humanities. 

The  intellectual  ardor  of  the  Renaissance  was  soon 
choked  by  the  bigotry  of  the  Reformation.  The  reign  of 
Edward  VI  (1547-1553)  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the 
vandalism  of  the  Protestants,  who  tore  down  as  sacri- 
legious the  architectural  emblems  of  the  older  faith 
and  destroyed  whole  libraries  of  monastic  learning.  The 
Catholic  reaction  under  Mary  transferred  atrocities  at 
Oxford  from  books,  images,  and  stained  glass  to  human 
lives.  Latimer  and  Ridley  were  burned  (October  16, 
1555)  beside  the  walls  of  Balliol,  where  now  the  Martyrs' 
Memorial  stands.  The  next  year,  Cranmer,  whose 
archiepiscopal  dignity  had  deferred  his  fate,  made  the 
great  last  speech,  in  which  he  recanted  his  recantations, 
in  St.  Mary's  Church,  and  was  hastened  thence  to  the 
stake  (March  21,  1556).  The  three  great  Oxford  martyrs 
were  all,  as  it  chanced,  Cambridge-bred;  but  they  had 
been  preceded  in  their  suffering  by  an  Oxford  man, 
John  Hooper,  the  first  and  stoutest  of  all  the  bishops 
burned  by  Mary,  who  went  to  the  stake  in  his  episcopal 
city  of  Gloucester,  February  9,  1555. 


HISTORY  9 

The  ancient  Benedictine  foundation,  Durham  College 
(1280),  and  Chichele's  College  of  St.  Bernard  (1437) 
had  been  extinguished  in  the  early  days  of  the  Refor- 
mation. In  Mary's  reign  two  important  new  colleges 
were  established  in  their  stead:  Trinity  (1554)  on  the 
site  of  Durham,  and  St.  John's  (1555)  on  that  of  St. 
Bernard's. 

The  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  was  not  a  glorious  era 
for  English  education.  Sluggishness,  privation,  and 
discontent  were  widespread  in  both  the  Universities, 
which  at  this  period  probably  differed  less  than  either 
before  or  since.  Mullinger's  account  of  conditions  at 
Cambridge  applies  almost  equally  to  Oxford:  "Inter- 
mingling with  a  certain  small  minority  of  scions  of 
noble  houses  and  country  squires,  we  find  the  sons  of  poor 
parsons,  yeomen,  husbandmen,  tailors,  shoemakers,  car- 
penters, innkeepers,  tallow  chandlers,  bakers,  vintners, 
blacksmiths,  curriers,  ostlers,  laborers." 

Despite  a  great  recent  increase  in  the  cost  of  living,  the 
poor  scholars  were  still  often  forced  to  subsist  on  the 
sums  which  had  been  judged  sufficient  for  their  support 
two  centuries  before.  In  Walter  de  Merton's  time  a 
shilling  a  week  seems  to  have  been  an  adequate,  and 
18  pence  an  ample  allowance  for  the  board  of  a  student; 
but  a  shilling  a  week  meant  starvation  rations  in 
Elizabeth's  reign.  Yet  a  number  of  the  colleges  still 
allowed  no  more.  It  may  have  been  these  material 
conditions  that  produced  the  intellectual  torpor  of  which 
writers  of  the  day  complain.  The  university  lecturers 
performed  their  statutory  functions  by  rote,  often  lec- 
turing to  empty  benches.  A  contemporary  character- 
ized the  average  student  as  one  who  "cares  naught  for 


lo  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

wisdom,  for  acquirements,  for  the  studies  which  dignify 
human  life,  for  the  Church's  weal  or  for  politics.  He  is 
all  for  buffooneries,  idleness,  loitering,  drinking,  lechery, 
boxing,  wounding,  killing." 

Mullinger  draws  an  amusing  contrast  to  show  how  far 
the  ancient  rules  for  undergraduate  education  had 
broken  down:  "The  ideal  undergraduate  contemplated 
by  university  and  college  codes,  was  a  decorous,  modest, 
soberly  attired  youth  who  made  his  college  his  habitual 
home.  Whenever  he  issued  forth  beyond  its  gates,  it  was 
only  with  the  express  permission  of  his  tutor  or  the  dean. 
Unless  it  devolved  upon  him  as  a  sizar  or  poor  scholar 
to  perform  some  menial  errand  for  a  superior,  he  was 
always  accompanied  by  a  fellow  collegian.  He  wore  his 
academic  gown,  reaching  to  his  ankles,  and,  unless  a 
scholar,  a  round  cloth  cap.  His  hair  was  closely  shorn 
and  he  eschewed  tobacco.  He  loitered  neither  in  the 
market-place  nor  in  the  streets,  and  shunned  alike  the 
lodging-house  and  the  tavern.  He  attended  no  cock- 
fights, no  baitings  of  bears  or  of  bulls,  no  fencing  matches; 
the  popular  and  apparently  innocent  diversion  of  quoits 
could  attract  him  neither  as  a  player  nor  even  as  a 
spectator.  He  neither  bathed  nor  boated.  At  the  early 
morning  service  at  five  o'clock,  and  again  in  the  evening, 
he  was  regularly  to  be  seen  in  his  place  in  the  college 
chapel.  On  Sundays,  feast-days,  and  eves,  he  wore  a 
shining  surplice,  and  although  the  garment  was  then 
five  times  more  costly  than  at  the  present  day,  no 
narrowness  of  means  could  prevent  him  from  possessing 
it  in  due  newness  and  cleanness.  Not  less  assiduous 
would  be  his  attendance  on  the  public  lectures  in  the 
schools  specially  designed  to  assist  him  in  his  under- 


HISTORY  II 

graduate  course  of  study, — a  patient  attentive  auditor 
from  the  commencement  of  each  lecture  to  its  close." 
Actually,  Mullinger  concludes,  the  ordinary  undergradu- 
ate "was  very  much  what  the  statutes  expressly  forbade 
him  to  be". 

The  Reverend  William  Harrison,  who  wrote  his  famous 
Description  of  England  for  Holinshed's  Chronicle  in 
1577,  has  much  to  say  of  the  Universities.  He  had  been 
at  both,  and  saw  little  to  choose  between  them.  Oxford, 
he  says,  has  the  finer  situation,  finer  streets  and  buildings, 
but  the  inner  life  is  equally  poor  at  both,  and  both  are 
equally  pestered  by  rapacious  tradesmen.  "This  also  is 
certain,  that  whatsoever  the  difference  be  in  building  of 
the  town  streets,  the  townsmen  of  both  are  glad  when 
they  may  match  and  annoy  the  students  by  encroaching 
upon  their  liberties,  and  keep  them  bare  by  extreme  sale 
of  their  wares,  whereby  many  of  them  become  rich  for  a 
time,  but  afterward  fall  again  into  poverty,  because  that 
goods  evil  gotten  do  seldom  long  endure."  Like  other 
writers  of  the  period,  Harrison  enlarges  upon  the  bleak 
poverty  of  the  usual  scholar's  life,  and  on  the  sorrier  fact 
that  when  at  last  these  same  scholars  attained  high 
degrees  and  academic  preferment,  they  then  lived  like 
drones,  without  intellectual  ambition. 

At  a  time  when  the  normal  function  of  the  universi- 
ties was  to  prepare  men  for  the  church,  the  educational 
level  of  the  clergy  was  a  fair  criterion  of  the  efficiency  of 
college  training.  And  the  intellectual  attainments  of  the 
average  clergyman  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  were  scanda- 
lously low.  Of  the  116  clergy  in  the  metropolitan  arch- 
deaconry of  London  in  1563,  42  were  adjudged  almost 
Latinless — at  a  period  when  Latin  was  the  key  to  all 


12  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

knowledge.  Richard  Baxter  (1615-1691),  the  Puritan, 
gives  a  sad  account  of  the  state  of  learning  and  morality 
among  the  ostensibly  educated,  as  they  were  still  to  be 
found  in  country  districts  at  the  close  of  James  I's  reign: 
"In  the  village  where  I  was  born,  there  were  four 
readers  successively  in  six  years'  time;  ignorant  men, 
and  two  of  them  immoral  in  their  lives,  who  were  all 
my  schoolmasters.  In  the  village  where  my  father  lived, 
there  was  a  reader  of  about  eighty  years  of  age  that 
never  preached,  and  had  two  churches  about  twenty 
miles  distant.  His  eyesight  failing  him,  he  said  Common 
Prayer  without  a  book;  but  for  the  reading  of  the  Psalms 
and  Chapters,  he  got  a  common  thresher  and  day- 
laborer  one  year,  and  a  tailor  another  year  (for  the  clerk 
could  not  read  well) ;  and  at  last  he  had  a  kinsman  of  his 
own  (the  excellentest  stage-player  in  all  the  country,  and 
a  good  gamester  and  good  fellow),  that  got  orders  and 
supplied  one  of  his  places.  After  him  another  young 
kinsman,  that  could  write  and  read,  got  orders;  and  at 
the  same  time  another  neighbor's  son  that  had  been  a 
while  at  school  turned  Minister,  and  who  would  needs  go 
further  than  the  rest,  ventured  to  preach  (and  after  got  a 
living  in  Staffordshire).  And,  when  he  had  been  a 
preacher  about  twelve  or  sixteen  years  he  was  fain  to 
give  over,  it  being  discovered  that  his  orders  were  forged 
by  the  first  ingenious  stage-player.  After  him  another 
neighbor's  son  took  orders  when  he  had  been  awhile  an 
attorney's  clerk  and  a  common  drunkard,  and  tippled 
himself  into  so  great  poverty  that  he  had  no  other  way  to 
live.  It  was  feared  that  he  and  more  of  them  came  by 
their  orders  the  same  way  with  the  aforementioned  per- 
son.   These  were  the  schoolmasters  of  my  youth  (except 


HISTORY  13 

two  of  them);  who  read  Common  Prayer  on  Sundays 
and  Holy-days,  and  taught  school  and  tippled  on  the 
week  days,  and  whipped  the  boys  when  they  were 
drunk,  so  that  we  changed  them  very  oft." 

Mighty  intellects,  indeed,  passed  through  the  Univer- 
sities in  the  Elizabethan  era:  Sidney,  Raleigh,  Peele, 
Lyly,  Hooker — to  mention  only  a  few — through  Oxford, 
and  yet  greater  men — Spenser,  Marlowe,  Bacon — 
through  Cambridge.  But  it  was  not  the  archaic  systems 
of  Oxford  or  Cambridge  that  developed  their  genius:  it 
was  the  new  English  spirit  which  had  as  yet  hardly  broken 
into  the  Universities,  but  which  soon  was  to  make  them 
torches  to  lighten  the  outer  darkness  described  by  Baxter. 

The  three  most  important  events  in  the  history  of 
Oxford  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I  were 
the  founding  in  1571  of  Jesus  College,  the  first  college 
instituted  under  Protestant  auspices,  and  one  designed 
for  Welsh  students  just  as  Exeter  had  been  for  students 
from  Southwest  England ;  the  founding  of  Wadham  Col- 
lege in  1613;  and  the  great  restoration  of  the  Library. 
The  books  given  by  Duke  Humphrey  and  the  others  that 
had  accumulated  about  them  had  been  scandalously 
dispersed  during  the  Philistine  reign  of  Edward  VI,  and 
the  very  building  that  housed  them  had  been  allowed  to 
moulder  till  it  was  virtually  a  ruin.  In  1598,  Sir  Thomas 
Bodley,  a  Magdalen  man — then  a  veteran  diplomat 
fifty-three  years  of  age — set  about  the  pious  task  of 
restoring  the  fabric  of  Duke  Humphrey's  Library  and 
recovering  the  wealth  of  precious  volumes  which,  in  all 
parts  of  England,  had  been  scattered  to  the  winds  by  the 
abolition  of  monasteries  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  In 
1603  the  Bodleian  was  opened,  and  in   161 1    formally 


14  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

endowed.  It  is  the  earliest  and  most  beautiful  of  the 
great  libraries  now  existing  in  England.  In  the  number 
and  value  of  its  books  it  ranks,  among  British  libraries, 
second  only  to  that  of  the  British  Museum  in  London, 
which  it  far  surpasses  in  age. 

It  was  during  the  reign  of  Charles  I  (162 5- 1649) 
that  Oxford  first  began  to  take  on  that  aristocratic  charm 
of  living  conditions  which  since  has  marked  it  above  all 
other  universities  in  the  world.  Wolsey,  in  planning  Car- 
dinal College  (Christ  Church),  had  indeed  designed  to 
raise  the  tone  of  life  in  his  college  above  the  penury  of  the 
usual  academic  regime;  but  his  plans  were  only  partially 
carried  through.  Another  great  churchman  it  was, 
Archbishop  Laud,  successively  President  of  St.  John's 
and  Chancellor  of  the  University,  who  more  definitely 
than  any  one  else  set  the  patrician  stamp  on  Oxford. 
Laud's  personal  career  linked  the  sympathies  of  the 
University  with  the  cavalier  party,  and  this  union  became 
a  fixed  thing  when  in  the  Civil  War  Charles  made  Oxford 
his  headquarters.  As  in  the  years  following  1914,  mili- 
tary necessity  wrought  bizarre  transformations  in  the 
University.  The  King  held  court  in  Christ  Church;  the 
Queen  and  her  ladies  filled  Merton;  Magdalen  Grove 
became  a  drill-ground  and  park  for  artillery ;  the  college 
plate  was  melted  to  fill  the  royal  war-chest;  and  the 
undergraduates  enlisted  in  Rupert's  cavalry. 

The  cavalier  tradition  has  never  died.  It  is  still  a 
frequent  Oxonian  pose  to  revere  the  "Royal  Martyr", 
Charles,  and  detest  the  Puritan;  and  the  possession  by 
any  college  of  a  bit  of  silver  which  escaped  melting  in 
1643  is  still  felt  to  require  apology.  The  patrician 
spirit  gradually  developed  a  richer   leisure    and   more 


HISTORY 


15 


genial  modes  of  life,  wherein,  in  fact,  the  University  was 
but  bringing  the  manners  and  customs  of  its  members 
into  consonance  with  the  generous  architectural  in- 
fluences it  had  inherited  from  an  earlier  time. 

Alien  critics  have  sometimes  seriously,  and  Oxonians 
themselves  whimsically,  complained  of  the  too  enervat- 
ing sweetness  of  the  composite.  Thus  Andrew  Lang  of 
Merton  says:  "If  St.  John's  men  have  lived  in  the  Uni- 
versity too  much  as  if  it  were  a  large  country-house,  if 
they  have  imitated  rather  the  Toryism  than  the  learning 
of  their  great  Archbishop,  the  blame  is  partly  Laud's. 
How  much  harm  to  study  he  and  Waynfiete  have  unwit- 
tingly done,  and  how  much  they  have  added  to  the 
romance  of  Oxford!  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  men 
find  it  a  weary  task  to  read  in  sight  of  the  beauty  of  the 
groves  of  Magdalen  and  of  St.  John's.  When  Kubla 
Khan  'a  stately  pleasure-dome  decreed,'  he  did  not  mean 
to  settle  students  there,  and  to  ask  them  for  metaphysical 
essays  and  for  Greek  and  Latin  prose  compositions. 
Kubla  Khan  would  have  found  a  palace  to  his  desire  in 
the  gardens  of  Laud,  or  where  Cherwell,  'meandering 
with  a  mazy  motion,'  stirs  the  green  weeds,  and  flashes 
from  the  mill-wheel,  and  flows  to  the  Isis  through 
meadows  white  and  purple  with  fritillaries.-.'"^ 

And  here  are  gardens  bright  with  sinuous  rills, 
Where  blossoms  many  an  incense-bearing  tree; 

but  here  is  scarcely  the  proper  training-ground  of  first- 
class  men !" 

Lang  would  have  beerf  the  first  to  exclaim  in  outrage 
against  a  Hteral  construction  of  his  words.  Do  the  temp- 
tations of  beauty  menace  character-building  more  than 


i6  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  perils  of  ugliness?  It  has  not  appeared  that  the 
intellectual  and  physical  ardors  of  Oxford  grew  less 
intense  as  the  conditions  of  life  grew  sweeter;  or  that  the 
men  she  trained  amid  her  Georgian  and  Victorian  ease — 
Gladstone,  Newman,  Arnold,  Rhodes,  Bryce, — deterio- 
rated in  strenuousness  from  those  she  bred  up  in  Eliza- 
bethan austerity. 

If  thoughts  of  politics  and  dogma  chiefly  occupied 
Oxford  during  the  period  of  the  Civil  Wars  and  Com- 
monwealth, there  was  one  group  of  men,  meeting  within 
the  walls  of  Wadham  College,  that  formed  a  remarkable 
exception  to  the  rule.  In  the  rooms  of  Dr.  John  Wilkins, 
Warden  of  Wadham  from  1648  till  1659,  gathered  the 
choice  spirits  who  were  later  incorporated  by  Charles  II 
(1662)  as  the  Royal  Society.  A  leader  among  them, 
though  no  longer  in  regular  residence  at  Oxford,  was 
John  Evelyn  of  Balliol,  whose  Diary  has  much  to  say  of 
Wilkins  and  the  Society.  Two  other  members,  both  of 
Wadham,  were  "that  prodigious  young  scholar,  Mr. 
Christopher  Wren"  (as  Evelyn  calls  him)  and  Thomas 
Sprat,  poet  and  divine,  who  later  wrote  the  history  of  the 
body.  "The  first  meetings",  says  Sprat,  "were  made  in 
Dr.  Wilkins  his  lodgings,  in  Wadham  College,  which  was 
then  the  place  of  resort  for  virtuous  and  learned  men.  .  . 
There  was  a  race  of  young  men  provided  against  the  next 
age,  whose  minds  receiving  their  first  impressions  of  sober 
and  generous  knowledge  were  invincibly  armed  against 
all  the  encroachments  of  enthusiasm."  The  account  of 
the  subjects  discussed,  which  is  given  by  Dr.  John 
Wallis  (Savilian  Professor  of  Geometry,  1649- 1703), 
shows  the  presence  among  them  of  the  real  university 
spirit :  "Our  business  was  (precluding  matters  of  theolog>' 


HISTORY  17 

and  state  affairs)  to  discourse  and  consider  of  philo- 
sophical inquiries,  and  such  as  related  thereunto:  as 
Physick,  Anatomy,  Geometry,  Astronomy,  Navigation, 
Staticks,  Magneticks,  Chymicks,  Mechanicks,  and  Nat- 
ural Experiments;  with  the  state  of  these  studies  and 
their  cultivation  at  home  and  abroad.  We  then  dis- 
coursed of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the  valves  in  the 
veins,  the  venae  lacteae,  the  lymphatic  vessels,  the 
Copernican  hypothesis,  the  nature  of  comets  and  new 
stars,  the  satellites  of  Jupiter,  the  oval  shape  (as  it  then 
appeared)  of  Saturn,  the  spots  on  the  sun  and  its  turning 
on  its  own  axis  .  .  .  with  other  things  appertaining 
to  what  hath  been  called  the  New  Philosophy." 

"Thus  it  was",  says  Huxley  in  his  essay  on  Improving 
Natural  Knowledge,  "that  the  half-dozen  young  men, 
studious  of  the  'New  Philosophy',  who  met  in  one 
another's  lodgings  in  Oxford  or  in  London,  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  grew  in  numerical  and  in  real 
strength,  until,  in  its  latter  part,  the  'Royal  Society 
for  the  Improvement  of  Natural  Knowledge'  had  already 
become  famous,  and  had  acquired  a  claim  upon  the  vener- 
ation of  Englishmen,  which  it  has  ever  since  retained, 
as  the  principal  focus  of  scientific  activity  in  our  islands, 
and  the  chief  champion  of  the  cause  it  was  formed  to 
support." 

The  pioneers  of  Science  forgot  their  differences  in  their 
common  devotion  to  the  "new  philosophy";  but  the 
University  generally  during  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  was  given  over  to  strife,  political  and 
theological.  For  a  time  the  Church  in  Oxford  suffered 
from  the  persecuting  measures  which  it  had  itself 
employed  against  its  Puritan  members  under  Charles  I. 


i8  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  use  of  the  Church  service  was  forbidden,  and  Pres- 
byterian and  Independent  divines  denounced  Episco- 
pacy from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Mary's.  But  academic  feel- 
ing softened  theological  bigotry;  the  performance  of  the 
Church  service,  though  forbidden,  was  winked  at,  and 
Christ  Church  still  treasures  the  picture  of  its  three 
divines  who  braved  the  law  and  read  the  liturgy  regularly 
throughout  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth. 

The  triumph  of  the  Royal  cause  at  the  Restoration 
naturally  brought  back  to  Oxford  those  of  her  sons  who 
had  been  expelled,  and  a  period  of  great  material  pros- 
perity began;  but  it  must  be  added  that  from  the  very 
first  Restoration  Oxford  was  open  to  the  reproach  of 
relaxed  morals  and  of  intellectual  sloth  which  for  a 
century  at  least  was  too  well  grounded. 

In  the  age  of  the  Restoration  Oxford  was  dominated 
by  Dr.  John  Fell  (1625-1686),  Dean  of  Christ  Church,  as 
his  father  had  been  before  him.  Fell  was  a  typical 
product  of  the  University.  He  had  served  as  an  officer 
in  the  royal  army  during  the  siege  of  Oxford  and  had 
suffered  for  the  cause  during  the  Commonwealth.  He  was 
passionate  in  his  loyalty  to  King  and  Church,  a  great 
beautifier  of  his  college  and  benefactor  to  the  Univer- 
sity, and  a  scholar  whose  solid  learning  is  still  respected. 
He  caused  the  erection  (by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  in 
1682)  of  the  great  Tom  Tower  at  Christ  Church,  and 
induced  Sheldon,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to 
donate  the  Sheldonian  Theatre  (again  on  Wren's  designs, 
1669),  in  order  that  the  precincts  of  St.  Mary's  Church 
might  no  longer  be  secularized  by  academic  meetings. 
He  did  much  to  foster  the  Oxford  Press,  presenting  it 
with  the  beautiful  Fell  type,  which  is  still  in  use  and  is 


HISTORY  19 

unmatchable  in  its  way.  His  encouragement  of  scholar- 
ship went  beyond  the  usual  fields  and  lent  impetus  to  the 
new  study  of  Anglo-Saxon.  Posterity,  however,  has  not 
been  grateful  to  Fell.  He  made  the  mistake  of  quarreling 
with  Anthony  Wood,  the  great  historian  of  Oxford,  who 
avenged  himself  effectively  for  Fell's  bullying;  and  he 
incurred  a  yet  more  damaging  immortality  as  the  sub- 
ject of  that  undergraduate  perversion  of  Martial's  epi- 
gram, which  for  the  naturalness  and  artless  simplicity  of 
its  sentiment  almost  deserves  to  be  called  the  Ballade  of 
College  Deans: 

I  do  not  like  you,  Doctor  Fell. 
The  reason  why  I  cannot  tell; 
But  this  I  know,  and  know  full  well : 
I  do  not  like  you,  Doctor  Fell. 

In  1687,  about  the  time  of  Fell's  death — when  Addison 
was  on  the  point  of  entering  Queen's  and  Steele,  Christ 
Church — James  H's  effort  to  force  upon  Magdalen 
College  a  Roman  Catholic  President  of  his  own  naming 
brought  Oxford  again  into  the  centre  of  the  political  stage. 
The  King's  violent  ejection  of  President  Hough  and  the 
Fellows  of  Magdalen  was  one  of  the  overt  acts  that 
determined  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  it  had  the  effect 
of  qualifying  for  a  time  Oxford  enthusiasm  for  the 
Stuarts. 

Yet  the  spirit  of  the  University  in  the  next  century, 
the  eighteenth,  remained  predominantly  Tory  and 
Jacobite.  The  physical  loveliness  of  Oxford  was  probably 
greater  at  this  period  than  at  any  other,  for  the  noblest 
buildings  were  now  complete,  and  the  modern  brick  of 
the  nineteenth-century  city  had  not  smutched  the  fresh- 
ness of  their  sylvan  setting.    The  creation  of  Worcester 


20  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

College,  in  17 14,  out  of  the  older  Gloucester  Hall,  and 
that  of  Hertford  College  out  of  Hart  Hall,  in  1740,  vir- 
tually finished  the  college  system  as  it  is  to-day.  Pem- 
broke College,  which  has  a  notable  list  of  great  alumni, 
had  been  similarly  evolved  in  1624  out  of  Broadgates 
Hall. 

The  intellectual  atmosphere  of  Oxford  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  left  much  to  be  desired.    There  was  much 
sloth,  and  more  bitterness  of  party  spirit,  which  are  all 
luridly  depicted  in  the  Diary  of  the  Jacobite  antiquary, 
Thomas  Hearne,  and  the  vindictive  essays  of  the  Whig 
pamphleteer,  Nicholas  Amherst  ("Terrae  Filius").     Am- 
herst, who  had  been  ejected  from  St.  John's,  thus  pic- 
tures the  fashionable  undergraduates  of  Samuel  John- 
son's time  (ca.  1725),  as  observed  by  a  newcomer  fresh 
from  public  school :    "He  saw,  though  he  could  not  agree 
they  had  a  vast  deal  of  learning,  that  they  had  very  good 
linen;    not  abundance  of  wit,  indeed,  but  very  rich  lace, 
red  stockings,  silver-button'd  coats,  and  other  things 
which  constitute  a  man  of  taste  in  Oxford."   The  historian 
Gibbon,  whose  Autobiography  contains  a  harsh  invective 
against  the  educational  inefficiency  of  the  University  in 
the  middle  of  the  century,  adds  a  notable  sketch  of  the 
superficial  glory  of  the  "gentleman-commoner"  at  this 
time.     There  is  much  in  it  that  suggests  present  day 
conditions,  though  no  modern  freshman  is  arrayed  like 
one  of  these.    "My  own  introduction  to  the  University  of 
Oxford",  he  says,  "forms  a  new  era  in  my  life,  and  at  the 
distance  of  forty  years  I  still  remember  my  first  emotions 
of  surprise  and  satisfaction.    In  my  fifteenth  year  I  felt 
myself  suddenly  raised  from  a  boy  to  a  man ;  the  persons 
whom  I  respected  as  my  superiors  in  age  and  academical 


HISTORY  21 

rank  entertained  me  with  every  mark  of  attention  and 
civility;  and  my  vanity  was  flattered  by  the  velvet  cap 
and  silk  gown  which  discriminate  a  Gentleman-Com- 
moner from  a  plebeian  student.  A  decent  allowance, 
more  money  than  a  schoolboy  had  ever  seen,  was  at  my 
own  disposal,  and  I  might  command  among  the  trades- 
men of  Oxford  an  indefinite  and  dangerous  latitude  of 
credit.  A  key  was  delivered  into  my  hands  which  gave 
me  free  use  of  a  numerous  and  learned  library;  my  apart- 
ment consisted  of  three  elegant  and  well-furnished  rooms 
in  the  new  building,  a  stately  pile,  of  Magdalen  College ; 
and  the  adjacent  walks,  had  they  been  frequented  by 
Plato's  disciples,  might  have  been  compared  to  the  Attic 
shade  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus.  Such  was  the  fair 
prospect  of  my  entrance  (April  3,  1752)  into  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford." 

Gibbon  enjoyed  the  luxury  of  a  gentleman-commoner 
at  Magdalen;  Johnson,  some  twenty  years  earlier,  lived 
the  life  of  a  poor  scholar  at  Pembroke.  Both  departed 
without  degrees.  Gibbon  with  an  utter  contempt  for  the 
lax  intellectual  discipline  of  the  place;  Johnson  with  an 
affectionate  veneration  which  often  taxed  all  his  powers  of 
paradox  in  its  defence.  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge, 
self-control  have  always  been  special  needs  of  the  Oxford 
undergraduate,  and  they  were  hardly  ever  so  indispen- 
sable— or  so  rare — as  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  chief  literary  interest  of  the  time  appears  to  have 
been  a  kind  of  belles-lettristic  trifling,  in  which  Christ 
Church  was  then  preeminent.  When  vanity  or  inad- 
vertence brought  such  sciolists  into  open  debate  with  real 
scholars,  as  early  in  the  century  when  the  wits  of  Christ 
Church  clashed  with  Richard  Bentley  in  the  famous  dis- 


22  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

pute  over  ancient  and  modern  learning,  there  ensued  a 
rout  so  terrific  that  even  the  interposed  genius  of  Swift 
and  Pope  could  not  respectably  cover  their  retreat.  The 
eighteenth  century  at  Oxford  is  likely  to  appear  to  us 
today  an  age  of  vanity  and  party  bigotry — the  expulsion 
of  Methodists  in  1768  is  no  isolated  phenomenon.  To  us 
it  seems  a  dull  age  which  even  the  charming  manner  of 
its  historian,  Mr.  A.  D,  Godley,  can  hardly  gild  with 
interest.  Yet  Mr.  Godley  is  right  in  claiming  for  it  a 
considerable  subterranean  progress,  evidenced  by  the 
change  that  the  University  unwittingly  passed  through 
before  1800.  "It  is",  he  says,  "a  change  from  disorder 
to  order  in  Colleges :  in  the  University,  the  substitution 
(at  last)  of  a  modern  and  stimulating  system  of  honour 
examinations  for  mediaeval  exercises." 

Till  the  year  1800  examinations  for  degrees  were  gov- 
erned by  the  Laudian  statutes  of  1636,  which  look  impres- 
sive on  paper,  but  were  in  fact  executed  in  a  perfunctory 
and  puerile  spirit.  Dr.  John  Eveleigh,  Provost  of  Oriel 
from  1 78 1  till  1 814,  was  more  than  anyone  else  responsible 
for  the  introduction  of  the  competitive  system  of  exami- 
nations for  honours,  out  of  which  grew  first  the  justly 
famed  Honour  School  of  Literae  Humaniores  and  that  of 
Mathematics,  and  then  the  seven  others  developed  in  the 
nineteenth  century:  Natural  Science,  Jurisprudence, 
Modern  History,  Theology,  Oriental  Studies,  English 
Language  and  Literature,  and  Modern  Languages. 

The  torpid  mental  life  of  the  University  was  galvan- 
ized into  energy,  and  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth 
century  became  one  of  the  most  brilliant  periods  in 
Oxford's  history.  A  striking  fact  is  the  intellectual 
hegemony  enjoyed  by  Oriel  at  this  time.    A  Fellowship 


HISTORY  23 

of  Oriel  came  to  be  the  premier  distinction  in  the  Univer- 
sity. Thomas  Arnold,  an  Oriel  Fellow,  becoming  Head- 
master of  Rugby  School  in  1828,  reformed  the  entire 
system  of  English  Public  School  education.  Four  other 
Fellows — John  Keble,  E.  B.  Pusey,  R.  H.  Froude,  and 
J.  H.  Newman — wrote  the  name  of  Oxford  large  on  nine- 
teenth-century religious  thought.  The  Oxford  Movement 
crystallized  in  the  Tracts  for  the  Times,  begun  in  1833.  In 
particular,  Tract  90,  by  Newman,  made  much  history. 
Some  idea  of  the  nature  of  this  intellectual  revival  is 
given  in  a  sketch  of  Newman's  mind  by  a  younger  Oriel 
man,  J.  A.  Froude,  the  historian:  "Newman's  mind 
was  world-wide.  He  was  interested  in  everything  which 
was  going  on  in  science,  in  politics,  in  literature.  Nothing 
was  too  large  for  him,  nothing  too  trivial,  if  it  threw 
light  upon  the  central  question,  what  man  really  was,  and 
what  was  his  destiny.  .  .  His  natural  temperament 
was  bright  and  light;  his  senses,  even  the  commonest, 
were  exceptionally  delicate."  Eighteenth-century  Oxford 
hardly  bred  such  men;  nineteenth-century  Oxford, 
though  it  did  not  multiply  Newmans,  was  prodigal  of  his 
type.  In  1831,  Gladstone  of  Christ  Church  took  his 
double-first,  in  classics  and  mathematics;  and  the  next 
year  entered  Parliament  to  trumpet  to  the  world  the 
soundness  of  the  Oxford  stamp.  From  this  time  on, 
British  political  thought  was  in  no  small  degree  moulded 
by  men  who  opened  their  careers  by  a  first-class  in  the 
"Lit.  Hum."  examination.  Goldwin  Smith  of  Christ 
Church  and  Magdalen  took  his  first  in  1845,  James  Bryce 
of  Trinity,  in  1862;  H.  H.  Asquith  of  Balliol,  in  1874. 
By  the  time  that  A.  H.  Clough  and  Matthew  Arnold  went 
from   Balliol    to  Oriel   Fellowships   (in    1841    and    1845 


24  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

respectively),  and  J.  A.  Froude,  from  Oriel  to  an  Exeter 
Fellowship  (in  1842),  the  intellectual  preeminence  in 
Oxford  was  passing  from  Oriel  to  Balliol,  which  under 
the  Mastership  of  Jowett  (i 870-1 893)  continued  to 
maintain  a  somewhat  Spartan  dominance. 

The  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  marked 
by  an  increase  in  aesthetic  interests.  Shelley  and  Landor, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  had  stormy  and  disas- 
trous careers;  Keble  and  Newman  were  but  incidentally 
men  of  letters.  The  graduates  of  the  'forties — Clough 
and  Arnold,  for  example — found  an  atmosphere  more 
congenial  to  pure  literature.  After  1850  there  was  little 
to  curb  the  impulse  to  belles  letlres.  William  Morris 
and  Edward  Burne-Jones  of  Exeter,  A.  C.  Swinburne  of 
Balliol,  Oscar  Wilde  of  Magdalen,  Andrew  Lang  and 
George  Saintsbury  of  Merton,  were  not  lonely  figures  in 
the  undergraduate  life  of  their  day.  The  high  priest  of 
this  aesthetic  cult  was  Walter  Pater  of  Queen's,  Fellow 
of  Brasenose  from  1864  till  1894.  Simultaneously  there 
flourished,  in  evident  connection  with  the  rising  fortunes 
of  the  Modern  History  School,  a  remarkable  series  of 
English  historians:  J.  A.  Froude,  J.  R.  Green,  Mark 
Pattison,  William  Stubbs,  E.  A.  Freeman,  S.  R.  Gar- 
diner; while  Frederic  Harrison  of  Wadham,  graduating 
with  a  first  class  in  "Lit.  Hum."  in  1853,  became  the  leader 
of  the  new  Positivist  philosophy. 

No  single  college  and  no  single  course  of  study  enjoys 
today  the  preeminence  which  Oriel  and  the  "Lit.  Hum." 
School  held  a  century  ago.  The  ease  with  which  Oriel, 
and  after  it  Balliol,  secured  the  leadership  is  explained 
by  Goldwin  Smith's  picture  of  Magdalen  in  the  'forties, 
an  institution  then  not  greatly  different  from  the  college 


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HISTORY  25 

of  Gibbon's  description.  "My  Magdalen",  he  says  in  his 
Reminiscences  (191 1),  "Hke  my  Eton,  was  a  relic  of 
the  past.  It  had  forty  Fellowships,  thirty  Demyships  or 
Scholarships,  and  a  revenue  of  forty  thousand  pounds  a 
year,  besides  its  rich  dower  of  historic  beauty.  It  took  no 
Commoners,  and  its  educational  output  in  my  time  was 
eight  or  ten  undergraduate  Demys  and  one  Gentleman 
Commoner,  who,  being  under  the  phantom  authority  of 
the  nonagenarian  President,  lived  in  a  license  beyond 
even  the  normal  license  of  his  class.  Frederick  Bulley, 
afterwards  President,  did  something  for  us  as  tutor,  at 
least  in  the  way  of  most  kindly  interest  and  encourage- 
ment; but  we  really  depended  for  instruction  upon  pri- 
vate tutors;    'coaches'  they  were  called.     .     . 

"In  those  days  before  University  Reform  the  Fellow- 
ships of  Magdalen  were  divided  among  certain  counties, 
and  there  was  no  prospect  of  a  vacancy  in  my  county. 
I  had  to  seek  a  Fellowship  elsewhere.  It  was  with  keen 
regret  that  I  left  Magdalen;  my  heart  has  always  turned 
to  its  beauty,  and  often  the  sound  of  its  sweet  bells  has 
come  to  me  across  the  ocean.  Reformed  it  had,  in  justice 
to  the  University  and  the  nation,  to  be;  and  I  had  to 
bear  a  hand  in  the  process;  but  I  was  helping  to  destroy  a 
little  Eden  in  a  world  where  there  are  not  many  of  them." 

The  reforms  of  the  'fifties,  carried  through  in  pursu- 
ance of  an  Act  of  Parliament  of  1854,  were  started  by  the 
efforts  of  a  group  of  liberal-minded  Fellows  within  the 
University,  prominent  among  whom  were  Smith,  Jowett, 
Mark  Pattison,  and  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley.  The 
effect — beside  important  changes  in  university  govern- 
ment— was  to  correct  abuses  of  two  kinds,  which  Froude 
indicates  in   sketching   the  conditions  of    1836.      "The 


26  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

scheme  of  teaching  for  the  higher  kind  of  men",  he  de- 
clares, "was  essentially  good,  perhaps  as  good  as  it  could 
be  made ;  incomparably  better  than  the  universal  knowl- 
edge methods  which  have  taken  its  place.  But  the  idle 
or  dull  man  had  no  education  at  all.  His  three  or  four 
years  were  spent  in  forgetting  what  he  had  learnt  at 
school.  .  .  The  discipline  was  lax,  the  undergraduates 
were  idle  and  extravagant ;  there  were  scandalous  abuses 
in  college  management,  and  life  at  the  University  was 
twice  as  expensive  as  it  need  have  been." 

The  multiplication  of  Honour  Schools  and  the  reform 
of  the  Pass  Degree  aimed  at  securing  a  creditable  amount 
of  supervised  study  from  those  undergraduates  who  were 
unlikely,  from  taste  or  lack  of  ability,  to  shine  in  Literae 
Humaniores.  Keble  College  was  established  in  1870  with 
the  purpose  of  providing  an  Oxford  education  at  a  cost 
lower  than  that  necessary  at  the  older  colleges.  The 
previous  creation,  in  1868,  of  the  Delegacy  of  Non-Colle- 
giate Students  served  still  more  to  provide  for  the  require- 
ments of  poor  students,  and  reclaimed  to  the  University 
the  right  of  functioning,  as  in  the  Middle  Ages,  inde- 
pendently of  the  colleges.  Another  concession  to  modern 
needs,  following  a  new  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Univer- 
sities Act  in  1877,  was  the  establishment  of  foundations 
for  the  education  of  women :  Somerville  College  and  Lady 
Margaret  Hall  in  1879,  St.  Hugh's  in  1886,  and  St. 
Hilda's  Hall  in  1893.  Very  recently  the  tendency  to 
democratize  has  further  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
Greek  requirement  for  admission,  the  granting  of  de- 
grees to  women,  and  the  creation  of  the  D.Phil,  degree  by 
the  side  of  the  old  research  degrees  of  Bachelor  and 
Doctor  of  Letters  and  of  Science. 


HISTORY  2-] 

With  this  broadened  efficiency  there  has  grown  up  an 
equally  modern  tendency  to  strike  averages  and  plot 
cur\'es  instead  of  holding  to  the  old  cruel  faith  in  the 
demonstrable  superiority  of  the  better  man.  The  "uni- 
versal knowledge  methods"  of  the  Victorian  Reform, 
which  Froude  deprecated,  have  so  vastly  complicated  the 
machinery  of  university  examinations  as  to  produce  a 
scepticism  regarding  their  absolute  results.  Thus  Mr. 
Godley  wrote  in  1908 :  "It  may  be  doubted  whether  mod- 
erns retain  that  whole-hearted  belief  in  the  educational 
efficacy  and  saving  grace  of  examinations  which  cer- 
tainly prevailed  thirty  years  ago.  Then,  they  were  the 
supreme  and  final  test  of  merit  and  the  only  real  guide 
of  study:  and  society  was  to  be  regenerated  by  them. 
There  may  be  some  who  would  still  maintain  that  these 
optimistic  expectations  have  been  realised.  We  have 
not  quite  lost  our  illusions.  But  all  good  things  have 
their  questionable  side:  a  system,  which  at  first  was  a 
useful  servant,  has  now  become  a  rather  tyrannous  mas- 
ter: probably  most  teachers  in  Universities  at  least  re- 
gard examinations  as  something  of  a  necessary  evil :  even 
society  in  general  has  begun  to  suspect  that  there  may  be 
other  means  of  selection  for  the  public  service.  Perhaps 
it  is  a  sign  of  improved  ideals  that  the  man  who  aims  at  a 
First  Class  for  itself  (that  hero  of  the  early  and  middle 
Victorian  age)  is  now  regarded  as  a  rather  vulgar  and  un- 
satisfactory person,  and  that,  in  the  opinion  of  most, 
examination  is  no  better  than  a  wolf  held  by  the  ears: 
there  are  inconveniences  in  retaining  hold  of  the  raven- 
ous beast,  but  still  graver  inconveniences  might  result 
from  letting  it  go." 

It  is  certain  that  present-day  Oxford  is  moving  very 


28  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

rapidly — in  which  direction  who  shall  say?  Whether 
the  wolf  of  intellectual  indifference  that  ravened  through 
the  eighteenth  century  will  again  be  set  free,  or  some 
gentler  modern  suasion  will  replace  the  rude  grip  of 
competitive  examination,  rests  probably  on  the  knees  of 
a  future  Parliamentary  Commission.  Two  things,  how- 
ever, must  be  said.  Despite  the  lugubriousness  of  Froude, 
an  economic  and  scientific  century  has  imposed  universal 
knowledge  methods  upon  Oxford  in  a  form  so  merciful 
that  it  still  seems  a  cultural  Utopia  in  contrast  with  other 
British  or  American  universities.  And  the  grip  on  the 
wolf's  ears  is  not  yet  very  dangerously  relaxed.  A  dozen 
years  ago,  when  Mr.  Godley  was  writing  with  a  natural 
tutorial  gloom,  there  did  exist  among  undergraduates  of 
the  better  type  a  strong  faith  in  the  Honour  Schools. 
There  did  exist,  despite  the  disillusions  and  chances  of 
Public  Examinations,  a  happy  trust  that  mental  superi- 
ority is  a  tangible,  provable,  and  supremely  desirable 
thing.  One  believes  that  this  faith  and  trust  exist  in 
Oxford  still,  and  one  applauds  her  for  them;    for  these 

Are  yet  the  fountain-light  of  all  our  day, 
Are  yet  a  master-light  of  ail  our  seeing. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  AND 

COLLEGES 

By  L.  A.  Crosby,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Maine  and  Trinity,  'ij 

The  most  important  and  most  peculiar  characteristic 
of  the  University  of  Oxford  is  that  it  is  a  university  of 
colleges.  "Not  merely  a  university  and  colleges;  rather, 
a  university  of  colleges."  Both  the  University  and  the 
Colleges  are  incorporated  bodies.  Membership  in  the 
former  is  acquired  and  retained  only  through  member- 
ship in  a  College,  Hall  or  other  recognized  society,  which  is 
itself  a  federated  member  of  the  University. 

To  Americans  this  curious  interrelationship  (whose 
only  counterpart  in  the  university  world  is  at  Cam- 
bridge) is  best  explained  by  reference  to  the  close  analogy 
offered  by  the  political  organization  of  the  United  States. 
The  Federal  Government  corresponds  to  the  University; 
the  States,  to  the  Colleges;  and  the  citizens,  who  exer- 
cise their  rights  of  national  citizenship  in  and  through 
their  respective  States,  correspond  to  undergraduates 
and  graduates,  whose  University  rights  and  privileges 
are  dependent  primarily  upon  membership  in  a  College 
or  other  recognized  body.  This  striking  parallel  ex- 
tends, though  less  exactly,  to  the  governmental  organs  of 
the  Republic  and  its  States,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the 
University  and  its  Colleges,  on  the  other.    The  principal 


30  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

weakness  in  this  analogy  is  that  while  in  America  the 
Federal  Government  has  gained  greatly  in  importance  at 
the  expense  of  the  States,  in  the  life  of  Oxford,  the  Col- 
leges (although  working  in  close  harmony  and  co- 
operation) seem  to  have  more  prominence  than  the 
University.  At  any  rate,  except  at  matriculation,  exam- 
inations, degree  days,  and  in  contests  with  Cambridge, 
the  University  counts  for  very  little  in  the  life  of  the 
undergraduate,  and  the  College,  for  very  much.  To  the 
undergraduate  the  University  seems  but  the  sum  of  the 
Colleges. 

This  relation  of  Colleges  and  University  is  so  funda- 
mental and  of  such  far-reaching  effect  upon  all  aspects  of 
Oxford  life  that  it  must  be  firmly  grasped  by  all  who 
would  understand  how  Oxford  lives  and  works.  It  will 
be  frequently  referred  to  and  more  frequently  taken  for 
granted  throughout  this  book. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  AS  A  BODY  CORPORATE 

Oxford  University  is  a  body  corporate,  existing  under 
the  laws  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  and  consisting  of  a  group  of  twenty-one  col- 
leges, several  halls,  and  recognized  societies,  and  of 
approximately  15,000  individual  undergraduate  and  grad- 
uate members.  Of  these  about  5,000  are  undergraduates 
in  residence. 

Individual  membership  in  the  University  is  open  to 
all  men  and  women  who  satisfy  the  requirements  of  ad- 
mission (see  Chapter  III).  It  is  acquired  by  matricula- 
tion, and  retained  (both  before  and  after  graduation)  by 
the  payment  of  certain  university  and  college  fees.  All 
undergraduates  must  pay  these  fees.    Graduates  may  or 


ORGANIZATION  31 

may  not  pay  them,  as  they  choose;  but  failure  to  pay 
them  means  the  loss  of  "membership"  in  the  University 
and  of  all  its  attendant  rights  and  privileges.  In  actual 
practice  graduate  membership  is  kept  up  generally  by 
graduates  residing  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  by  others 
who  have  special  ties  of  sentiment,  loyalty,  or  interest. 

The  requirement  of  fees,  as  a  condition  to  graduate 
membership  in  the  University,  is  not  unreasonable,  how- 
ever unfamiliar  to  Americans;  for  that  membership  car- 
ries with  it  both  academic  and  political  rights.  Every 
graduate  who  has  taken  the  degree  of  M.A.  or  some 
higher  degree,  and  who  fulfills  the  requirement  of  fees, 
is  (i)  ipso  facto  a  member  of  Convocation,  and  entitled 
to  vote  upon  all  proposed  University  legislation ;  and  (2) 
entitled  (if  a  British  subject  and  not  otherwise  legally 
disqualified)  to  vote  in  the  elections  of  the  two  members 
who  represent  the  University  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons. 

Oxford  and  Cambridge  are  often  spoken  of  by  English- 
men as  "national"  universities.  The  term  is  misleading, 
for  neither  is  national  in  the  sense  that  it  is  supported  by 
or  administered  under  the  direction  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. Like  every  other  institution  in  the  Kingdom, 
Oxford  is  subject  to  Parliamentary  legislation.  But  it  is 
a  "national"  university  only  in  the  sense  that  it  is  not  local 
or  provincial  in  character,  but  by  tradition,  history,  and 
present  importance,  intimately  identified  with  the  life  and 
development  of  the  British  nation.  It  is  supported  not 
by  grants  but  by  income  from  University  endowments,  by 
fees,  and  by  contributions  from  its  constituent  colleges. 

Under  the  existing  Acts  of  Parliament  and  Statutes  of 
the  University,  its  government  is  organized  as  follows: 


32  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

A.    Executive  and  Judicial  Officers: 

1.  The  official  head  of  the  University  is  the  Chancellor 
who  is  elected  for  life  by  Convocation.  As  he  is  a  non- 
resident officer,  his  actual  functions  are  chiefly  honorary, 
and  his  executive  power  is  largely  delegated  to  his  deputy, 
the  Vice-Chancellor.  The  Chancellor  is  usually  a  dis- 
tinguished graduate  of  the  University,  prominent  in  the 
political  or  intellectual  life  of  the  Kingdom.  The  present 
Chancellor  is  Lord  Curzon  of  Kedleston,  formerly  Viceroy 
of  India,  and  for  several  years  a  leading  member  of  the 
British  Cabinet. 

2.  The  Vice-Chancellor,  as  already  indicated,  is  the 
actual  executive  head  of  the  University.  He  is  nominated 
annually  by  the  Chancellor  from  among  the  Heads  of  Col- 
leges. It  is  customary  for  the  Heads  of  Colleges  to  be  nomi- 
nated to  this  office  in  the  order  of  their  election  as  Heads, 
and  also  for  the  Vice-Chancellor  to  be  re-nominated  three 
times,  so  that  the  office  is  ordinarily  held  by  one  person  for 
four  consecutive  years.  He  presides  at  all  meetings  of  the 
governing  bodies  of  the  University,  sees  to  it  that  all  statu- 
tory meetings,  lectures,  etc.,  are  duly  held,  confers  degrees, 
and  represents  the  University  at  public  functions.  He  also 
has  certain  judicial  powers,  appointing  the  assessor  or  deputy 
who  acts  as  judge  ordinary  in  the  Court  of  the  Chancellor 
which  has  jurisdiction  in  all  civil  cases  involving  resident 
members  of  the  University'.  (See  Appendix  D.)  Assisted  by 
the  Proctors,  the  Vice-Chancellor  exercises  a  general  super- 
vision over  University  affairs  and  is  responsible  for  the 
maintenance  of  order  and  discipline.  No  public  entertain- 
ment can  be  held  in  the  City  without  the  consent  of  the 
Vice-Chancellor  and  the  Mayor.  But  with  all  these 
powers,  the  Vice-Chancellor's  position  is  not  comparable 
in  power  and  importance,  either  within  or  without  the 
University,  to  that  of  the  President  of  Harvard,  Yale,  or 
Princeton. 


ORGANIZATION  33 

3.  The  two  Proctors  are  elected  annually  by  the 
Colleges  in  rotation  from  among  their  fellows  and  lecturers. 
Aside  from  their  general  duty  to  assist  the  Vice-Chancellor, 
the  most  conspicuous  function  of  the  Proctors  is  the  actual 
enforcement  of  University  discipline  (see  Appendix  C). 
They  may  be  seen  of  an  evening  walking  about  the  city 
accompanied  by  two  or  three  professional  persons  called 
"bull-dogs"  or  "bullers"  whose  duty  it  is  to  summon  or 
catch  statute-breaking  undergraduates  and  bring  them  to 
their  master  to  be  told  when  to  appear  before  him  for 
judgment. 

4.  In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  the  University  officers 
include  a  High  Steward,  Public  Orator,  Bodley's  Libra- 
rian, Registrar,  Keeper  of  the  Archives,  Clerks  of  the 
Market,  Coroners,  Bedells,  and  others — whose  duties,  real 
or  nominal,  are  too  special  to  be  here  described. 

B.    Legislative  and  Administrative  Bodies: 

1.  Convocation,  the  ultimate  legislative  body  of  the 
University,  consists  of  all  "members  of  the  University"' 
resident  and  non-resident,  who  have  taken  the  degree  of 
M.A.,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  or  D.M.  In  November,  1920  Convo- 
cation numbered  7069  members. 

2.  Congregation,  a  smaller  body  numbering  about  600 
members,  includes  all  resident  "members  of  the  University"' 
who  have  taken  the  degree  of  M.A.  and  who  are  concerned 
with  either  the  teaching  or  the  administration  of  the  Uni- 
versity. 

3.  The  Hebdomadal  Council  consists  of  the  Chancellor, 
the  Vice-Chancellor,  the  ex-Vice-Chancellor  (for  one  year 
after  the  expiration  of  his  term)  the  Proctors,  and  18 
members  elected  for  terms  of  six  years  by  Congregation, 
three  from  among  Heads  of  Colleges  or  Halls,  six  from 

1  For  definition  of  "members  of  the  University"  see  pages  30-31. 


34  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

among  Professors,  and  nine  from  among  members  of  Con- 
vocation of  not  less  than  five  years'  standing. 

4.  The  Ancient  House  of  Congregation,  which  consists 
of  all  Doctors  and  MA.'s  for  two  years  after  admission  to 
their  respective  degrees,  all  Professors,  University  Ex- 
aminers, resident  Doctors,  Heads  and  Deans  of  Colleges 
and  Principals  of  Halls,  is  now  of  less  importance.  Its 
only  powers  are  the  granting  of  ordinary  degrees,  which 
after  the  University  requirements  have  been  satisfied  is  a 
pure  formality,  and  the  confirmation  of  the  appointment 
of  examiners. 
The  Hebdomadal  Council  alone  has  the  power  of  initia- 
ting University  legislation.  A  new  statute  approved  by  it  is 
then  promulgated  in  Congregation,  which  may  adopt, 
reject,  or  amend.  In  its  approved  form,  the  statute  must 
then  be  submitted  to  Convocation,  which  may  adopt  or 
reject,  but  cannot  amend  it.  Convocation  also  transacts 
much  of  the  ordinary  business  of  the  University  by  means 
of  decrees;  it  confers  honorary  degrees,  sanctions  petitions 
to  Parliament,  and  authorizes  the  affixing  of  the  Univer- 
sity seal.  But  no  proposals  can  be  made  to  Convocation 
which  have  not  been  sanctioned  by  the  Hebdomadal 
Council. 

From  the  foregoing  brief  analysis,  it  will  be  apparent 
that  the  constitution  of  the  University  of  Oxford  is  singu- 
larly democratic.  It  places  far  more  power  in  the  hands 
of  its  graduates  and  especially  in  the  hands  of  those 
engaged  in  educational  or  academic  work  than  do  most 
American  universities.  It  is  not  subject  to  the  control  of 
a  small  and  self-perpetuating  body  of  trustees  or  overseers 
dominated  by  business  or  professional  men.  But  every 
graduate,  who  retains  his  "membership"  in  the  University^ 

'For  requirements  of  graduate  "membership"  see  pages  30-31. 


ORGANIZATION  35 

and  who  has  taken  the  degree  of  M.A.,  D.D.,  D.C.L., 
or  D.M.,  has  the  right  to  a  voice  in  all  funda- 
mental changes  of  policy.  In  June,  1919,  when  the 
statute  for  the  abolition  of  Greek  as  a  compulsory 
entrance  requirement  was  before  Convocation,  over 
1200  graduates  were  present  and  voted  on  the  question. 

COLLEGES,  HALLS,  AND  SOCIETIES  * 

Besides  being  a  University  of  individual  members, 
Oxford  is  also  a  federation  of  twenty-one  Colleges,  one 
"Public  Hall",  two'Termanent  Private  Halls",  and  a  society 
of  "non-collegiate"  students,  membership  in  all  of  which 
is  limited  to  men ;  to  which  federation  have  been  added  by 
recent  legislation  four  Colleges  or  Halls  and  anon-collegiate 
society  all  exclusively  devoted  to  women  students. 

A  College,  in  the  usual  Oxford  meaning  of  the  term,  is 
an  incorporated  body  distinct  from,  while  in  a  sense  a 
member  of,  the  corporate  body  which  is  the  University. 
The  Colleges,  as  such,  enjoy  a  large  degree  of  practical 
independence,  and  still  more  theoretical  freedom;  they 
are  endowed  institutions  which  manage  their  own  prop- 
erty, elect  their  own  officers,  and  make  their  own  rules; 
they  are  not,  as  Colleges,  directly  subject  to  the  laws  and 
regulations  of  the  University  (which  bind  individual 
members  rather  than  Colleges),  and  the  Proctors  have 
no  power  within  their  walls.  But  notwithstanding  these 
distinctions,  the  relation  between  University  and  Colleges 
is  intimate;  for  all  members  of  the  Colleges  are  members 
of  the  University,  and  practically  all  members  of  the 
University  are  members  of  some  College. 

In  each  of  the  twenty-one  Colleges  for  men  (except  All 

1  For  list  of  Colleges,  Halls  and  Societies  see  Appendix  F. 


36  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Souls,  Christ  Church,  and  Keble  y  the  members  of  the 
corporate  body  are  the  Head,^  the  Fellows,  and  the 
Scholars.^  In  every  College  a  Scholar  is  an  undergrad- 
uate who  receives  an  annual  stipend  not  generally  exceed- 
ing 80  pounds  from  his  College,  and  who  as  such  is  a 
member  of  the  "foundation".  Scholarships  are  as  a  rule 
awarded  only  after  a  competitive  examination,  and  are 
tenable  for  two  years,  subject  to  renewal  for  an  additional 
two  years  if  the  conduct  and  diligence  of  the  Scholar  have 
been  satisfactory.  Scholarships  at  Oxford  are  regarded  as 
rewards  for  intellectual  merit  and  not  as  gifts  to  the 
impecunious;  they  are  held  in  high  esteem;  Scholars 
wear  distinctive  gowns  and  enjoy  certain  privileges  in 
their  Colleges.  (Rhodes  Scholars  are  not  Scholars  in 
this  sense;  their  scholarships  are  the  gift  of  a  private  trust 
and  entitle  them  to  no  special  status  in  the  Colleges.) 
In  many  Colleges  there  are  "Exhibitions"  and  in  some 
Colleges  "Bible  Clerkships";  both  of  which  entitle  the 
holders  to  certain  financial  assistance  and  some,  but 
usually  not  all,  of  the  privileges  of  the  Scholars. 

The  majority  of  the  undergraduate  students  in  each 
College    are    neither   Scholars    nor    Exhibitioners,    but 

lAt  All  Souls  there  are  no  Scholars;  at  Keble  there  are  no  Fellows; 
Christ  Church  is  a  Cathedral  Chapter  as  well  as  a  college  and  the  foun- 
dation includes  the  Dean  and  Canons,  as  well  as  the  Students  (Fellows) 
and  the  Scholars. 

2  The  title  of  the  Head  is  "Master"  at  University,  Balliol,  and  Pem- 
broke; "Warden"  at  Merton,  New  College,  All  Souls,  Wadham,  and  Ke- 
ble; "Rector"  at  Exeter  and  Lincoln;  "Provost"  at  Oriel,  Queen's,  and 
Worcester;  "President"  at  Magdalen,  Corpus  Christi,  Trinity,  and  St. 
John's;  "Principal"  at  Brasenose,  Jesus,  and  Hertford;  and  Dean  at 
Christ  Church. 

'  At  Merton  the  Scholars  are  called  "Postmasters";  and  at  Magdalen, 
"Demies". 


ORGANIZATION  37 

"Commoners",  and  are  not  in  the  technical  and  legal 
sense  "members  of  the  College".  But  for  all  practical 
purposes  they  are  and  have  the  status  of  members,  and 
are  universally  called  such. 

The  government  of  a  College  is  in  the  hands  of  its 
Head  and  Fellows,^  one  of  whom  acts  as  "dean"  and  en- 
forces college  discipline.  Each  College  is  not  only  in  law 
and  theory  a  distinct  body,  but  also  is  physically  and  eco- 
nomically independent.  Each  occupies  entirely  sepa- 
rate grounds  and  buildings,  usually  arranged  in  quad- 
rangles, and  all  entirely  enclosed  by  walls.  The  buildings 
usually  include  a  house  for  the  Head,  suites  and  rooms 
for  the  Fellows  and  undergraduates,  a  chapel,  lecture 
rooms,  a  library,  college  offices,  a  dining  hall,  and  kitchen. 
Many  Colleges  have  gardens  within  their  walls.  Prac- 
tically all  the  Colleges  are  closely  grouped  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  City. 

A  Public  Hall  differs  from  a  College  principally  in 
that  it  is  not  a  corporate  body,  and  has  no  Fellows  or 
Scholars.  Although  in  mediaeval  days  Oxford  had  more 
Halls  than  Colleges,  today  there  is  but  one  surviving 
Hall, — St.  Edmund,  which  is  closely  connected  with 
Queen's  College. 

Permanent  Private  Halls  may  be  licensed  by  the 
University,  and  their  members  thereby  admitted  to  its 
privileges  and  degrees,  just  as  other  students.  Of  these 
institutions  there  are  but  two,  both  conducted  by  Roman 
Catholic  orders:  Campion  Hall,  by  the  Jesuits;  and 
St.  Benet's  Hall,  by  the  Benedictines. 

All  male  undergraduates  who  are  not  members  of  a 
College  or  Hall  belong  to  the  Society  of  Non-Collegiate 

1  For  details  regarding  Fellowships,  see  Appendix  I. 


38  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Students,  which  dates  from  1868.  They  enjoy  the  same 
University  privileges  as  members  of  Colleges.  The 
Society  is  governed  by  a  Censor  and  certain  University 
Delegates,  and  has  a  staff  of  tutors;  but  maintains  no 
buildings  for  the  residence  of  its  members. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  there  are  a  number  of 
institutions  for  male  students  in  Oxford  which  may  be 
described  as  more  or  less  affiliated  with  the  University 
without  being  strictly  a  part  of  it.  Among  these  are 
Mansfield  College,  maintained  by  the  Congregationalists 
for  theological  students;  Manchester  College,  a  similar 
institution  maintained  by  the  Unitarians;  Wycliffe  Hall, 
Ripon  Hall,  and  Pusey  House,  which  are  Anglican  insti- 
tutions; and  St.  Stephen's  House,  which  is  Roman 
Catholic. 

Only  since  1920  have  women  been  admitted  to  full 
membership  and  to  degrees  in  the  University.  But 
societies  for  women  students  in  Oxford  have  existed  since 
1880,  and  members  of  such  societies  and  other  women 
students  have  been  admitted  to  lectures  and  University 
examinations  since  1884.  Under  the  University  statute 
of  May  II,  1920,  women  undergraduates  and  graduates 
are  entitled  to  practically  the  same  University  rights  and 
privileges  as  men,  except  that  they  are  not  admitted  to 
the  degrees  of  B.D.  and  D.D. 

The  women's  societies  whose  members  are  entitled  to 
these  privileges  are:  Lady  Margaret  Hall  (founded  in 
1878);  Somerville  College  (1879);  St.  Hugh's  College 
(1886);  St.  Hilda's  Hall  (1893);  and  the  Society  of 
Oxford  Home  Students,  founded  in  1879  and  corre- 
sponding roughly  to  the  Society  of  Non-Collegiate  Stu- 
.dents  established  for  men. 


ORGANIZATION  39 

Admission  to  the  University  is  theoretically  open  to 
all,  irrespective  of  age,  sex,  creed,  color,  nationality,  or 
station.  But  no  person  can  become  a  member  of  the 
University  unless  he  or  she  has  first  been  admitted  to 
some  one  of  its  Colleges,  Public  or  Permanent  Private 
Halls,  or  recognized  non-collegiate  societies.  The  Uni- 
versity as  such,  apart  from  these  bodies,  can  admit  no 
members.  The  result  is  that  the  Colleges,  which  are  free 
to  accept  or  reject  an  applicant,  are  in  a  position  largely 
to  control  both  the  numbers  and  quality  of  the  under- 
graduates. 


CHAPTER  III 

ADMISSION  AND  STANDING 

By  F.  J.  Wylie,  M.A.,  Oxford  Secretary  to  the  Rhodes 
Trustees  {Some  time  Fellow  of  Brasenose  College) 

First,  as  to  Admission.  There  is  only  one  means  of 
approach  to  the  University  of  Oxford — through  a  College 
or  Hall,  or  through  the  Society  of  Non-Collegiate  Stu- 
dents. Even  the  Vice-Chancel  lor  of  the  University  is 
powerless  either  to  accept  a  candidate  who  comes  to  him 
in  any  other  way,  or  to  refuse  a  candidate  presented  to 
him  for  matriculation  by  the  proper  officer  of  a  College 
or  Hall  or  of  the  Society  of  Non-Collegiate  Students. 
The  first  step,  therefore,  to  be  taken  by  any  one  who 
wishes  to  be  admitted  to  Oxford  is  to  get  himself  accepted 
by  one  of  these  bodies.  He  should  apply  to  the  head  of 
the  body  in  question,  submitting  full  information  as  to 
his  record,  interests,  and  intentions,  and  forwarding  at 
the  same  time  a  few  testimonials  as  to  character  and 
attainments.  This,  which  is  the  normal  procedure,  is 
simplified  for  Rhodes  Scholars;  for  all  applications  to 
Colleges  go  through  the  Oxford  Secretary,  and  the 
required  evidence  as  to  character,  record,  etc.,  is  pro- 
vided by  the  Scholar's  dossier,  which  is  forwarded  to 
Oxford  after  his  election. 

In  future  other  candidates  for  admission  will  be  able, 
if  they  so  desire,  to  make  application  to  Colleges  through 
the  office  of  the  Registrar  of  the  University,  a  Secretary 
for  Admissions  having  recently  been  appointed,  whose 


ADMISSION  AND  STANDING  41 

function  it  will  be  to  act  as  a  channel  of  communication 
between  Foreign  or  Colonial  Students  and  the  Colleges. 

Secondly  as  to  Standing.  A  student  coming  with  an 
A.B.  degree  does  not,  for  that  reason,  rank  at  Oxford  as  a 
graduate  student,  or  even  as  a  "Senior"  (in  the  American 
sense  of  the  word).  Socially,  he  is  always  just  a 
freshman :  for  "freshman"  at  Oxford  means  no  more  than 
a  man  in  his  first  term,  or  first  year,  without  any  reference 
to  studies.  Academically,  his  standing  will  depend  partly 
upon  his  scholastic  record  prior  to  coming  to  Oxford,  and 
partly  on  his  proposed  line  of  study  at  Oxford. 

It  may  be  presumed  that  an  American  Student  holding 
only  an  A.B.  degree  will  normally  read  for  one  of  the 
Final  Honour  Schools:  and  he  will  wish  to  know  what 
"credit"  he  can  get. 

There  are  two  examinations  preliminary  to  these  Final 
Honour  Schools — viz.  Responsions  (see  p.  58),  and  an 
Intermediate  Examination  known  as  The  First  Public 
Examination  (see  p.  59).  Students  from  other  Univer- 
sities can  generally  obtain  exemption  either  from  both 
of  these  examinations  (if  awarded  "Senior  Standing"), 
or  at  any  rate  from  the  first  (if  awarded  "Junior  Stand- 
ing"). 

Senior  Standing  is  the  status  obtainable  by  any  person 
who  has  obtained  an  "approved"  degree  at  an  "approved" 
University.  It  carries  with  it  one  year's  academic  Stand- 
ing, and  excuses  from  all  Examinations  preliminary  to 
the  Final  Honour  Schools. 

The  responsibility  for  "approving"  degree  and  Uni- 
versity rests  with  the  Hebdomadal  Council.  That  body 
reserves  to  itself  complete  discretion,  and  has  not  hither- 
to published  any  list  of  approved  universities  or  approved 


42  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

degrees.  It  is  understood,  however,  that,  in  dealing  with 
American  universities,  the  Council  is  guided,  without 
being  bound,  by  the  hst  of  universities  and  colleges 
issued  by  the  Association  of  American  Universities. 

So  long  as  Oxford  continues  to  take  this  list  as  the  basis 
of  its  judgments,  students  who  have  obtained  the  B.A. 
degree  from  any  of  these  Universities,  or  even  the  B.S. 
degree  where  that  degree  represents  a  liberal  education, 
and  not  a  technical  or  professional  training,  are  likely 
to  get  Senior  Standing.  Conversely,  students  from 
American  Universities  not  on  the  above-mentioned  list 
must  be  prepared  to  get  Junior  Standing  only;  and  the 
same  is  true  of  students  who  have  not  obtained  a  degree, 
whatever  the  institution  from  which  they  may  have 
come.  Since,  however,  the  list  contains  some  150  names, 
and  includes  all  of  the  leading  American  Universities, 
and  since  Rhodes  Scholars  have  normally  graduated 
before  they  come  into  residence  at  Oxford,  it  is  probable 
that  in  any  year  a  considerable  proportion  of  American 
Rhodes  Scholars  will  obtain  Senior  Standing. 

One  point  in  connection  with  Senior  Standing  deserves 
mention.  The  Statute  itself  does  not  lay  down  conditions 
of  "approval".  It  does  not,  for  instance,  insist  on  any 
special  languages  as  necessary  for  the  approval  of  a 
degree.  In  actual  practice  the  "approval"  of  Hebdomadal 
Council  has  been  determined  by  consideration  rather  of 
the  general  character  of  the  course  leading  to  the  degree 
than  of  the  question  whether  this  or  that  given  subject 
has  formed  part  of  the  course.  A  student,  therefore,  who 
has  graduated  from  a  University  that  is  "approved", 
may  hope  to  find  that  his  degree  entitles  him  to  Senior 
Standing  although  languages  may  not  have  been  em- 


ADMISSION  AND  STANDING  43 

phasized  in  his  course,  and  although  he  may  not  have 
studied  either  Latin  or  Greek.  On  the  other  hand  the 
holder  of  a  purely  technical  or  professional  degree  must 
not  expect  Senior  Standing,  even  though  the  University 
from  which  he  has  obtained  the  degree  may  be  on  the 
list  of  approved  institutions. 

Junior  Standing  is  the  status  obtainable  by  any  student 
from  a  Foreign  or  Colonial  University  who  has  pursued 
a  course  of  study  at  that  University  extending  over  two 
years  at  least,  provided  that  (i)  his  course  of  study,  and 
the  standard  attained  by  him  in  any  examinations  proper 
to  the  course,  have  been  approved  by  the  Hebdomadal 
Council,  and  (2)  his  course  has  included  the  study  of 
two  languages  other  than  English,  Latin  or  Greek  being 
one  of  those  languages.  This  status  carries  with  it  one 
year's  academic  standing,  and  exemption  from  Respon- 
sions,  but  not  from  the  First  Public  Examination. 

It  may  be  presumed  that  Rhodes  Scholars  will  nor- 
mally qualify  at  least  for  Junior  Standing.  Attention, 
however,  must  be  drawn  to  the  condition  that  either 
Latin  or  Greek  must  be  included  in  any  course  on  which 
a  claim  to  Junior  Standing  is  based.  That  condition  is 
explicit,  and  cannot  be  evaded  or  ignored. 

Anyone,  therefore,  who  does  not  qualify  for  Senior 
Standing,  and  who  cannot  satisfy  the  condition  for 
Junior  Standing  that  either  Latin  or  Greek  must  have 
been  included  in  his  course,  will  have  to  take  Respon- 
sions,  or  some  examination  exempting  from  Responsions, 
before  coming  into  residence.  Arrangements  can  be 
made,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  Oxford  Local  Exam- 
inations Delegacy,  whereby  a  Rhodes  Scholar  in  this 
situation  can  sit  for  an  examination  in  his  own  College 


44  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

or  University  which  will,  if  he  pass  it,  exempt  him  from 
Responsions — the  papers  being  sent  from  Oxford  and 
corrected  by  Oxford  Examiners.  This  examination  can 
be  taken  in  July,  and  passing  it  will  relieve  him  of  the 
necessity  of  going  to  Oxford  to  take  the  ordinary  Respon- 
sions Examination  in  September.  This,  however,  is  a 
matter  of  detail.  What  matters  is  that  it  should  be 
clearly  understood  that  a  Rhodes  Scholar,  as  such,  is 
exempt  from  no  University  Examinations  at  Oxford, 
and  consequently  that,  if  he  does  not  satisfy  the  condi- 
tions for  Junior  or  Senior  Standing,  he  will  have  to  pass 
Responsions  or  an  examination  accepted  as  exempting 
from  Responsions. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  here  two  further  points.  Firstly, 
students  who  obtain  Senior  or  Junior  Standing  may  not 
take  the  ordinary  Pass  Schools.  Senior  Students  must 
take  one  of  the  Honour  Schools;  Junior  Students  may 
take  either  an  Honour  School  or  the  Schools  of  Forestry 
or  Agriculture.  Secondly,  Senior  and  Junior  Standing 
are  of  importance  only  to  candidates  for  the  B.A.  degree. 
The  main  privilege  conferred  is  exemption  from  certain 
examinations,  preliminary  to  the  B.A.,  with  which 
candidates  for  Advanced  Degrees  are  not  concerned. 

It  is  entirely  natural  that  a  student  coming  to  Oxford 
from  another  university  should  desire  to  get  Senior 
Standing,  and  even  feel  some  soreness  should  he  fail  to 
do  so.  It  is  easy,  however,  to  exaggerate  the  importance 
of  the  difference  between  the  two  Standings.  What, 
actually,  does  it  amount  to?  Junior  and  Senior  Students 
both  secure  exemption  from  Responsions:  both  also 
secure  one  year's  academic  standing,  which  makes  it 
possible  for  them,  provided  that  they  obtain  Honours,  to 


ADMISSION  AND  STANDING  45 

"proceed  to"  the  B.A.  degree  in  two  years,  in  place  of  the 
normal  minimum  of  three.  The  difference  is  that  the 
Junior  Student  must  pass  an  intermediate  examination, 
from  which  the  Senior  Student  is  excused.  Since,  how- 
ever, this  examination  will  be,  in  the  main,  along  the 
lines  of  his  work  for  such  Final  Honour  School  as  he  may 
have  selected,  and  is  ordinarily  not  very  difficult,  it  will 
prove  less  of  an  interruption  than  might  at  first  sight 
appear.  The  worst  that  can  be  said  of  it  is  that  it  makes 
it  somewhat  harder — without  making  it  in  any  way  im- 
possible— to  take  a  Final  Honour  School  in  two  years. 
A  large  number  of  American  Rhodes  Scholars  in  the  past, 
who  have  been  given  Junior  Standing,  have  taken  their 
schools  in  two  years,  and  done  well  in  them. 

As  regards  procedure,  application  for  Standing  under 
the  Foreign  Universities'  Statute  must  be  made  to  the 
Registrar,  through  an  officer  of  the  society  (college  or 
hall)  of  which  the  applicant  is,  or  has  been  accepted  as,  a 
member.  The  application  should  be  accompanied  by  a 
complete  academic  record,  showing  courses,  gradings, 
and  degree  (if  any) ;  as  also  by  a  catalogue  of  the  uni- 
versity at  which  the  applicant  has  studied. 

So  much  for  the  B.A,  degree  and  for  the  privileges 
which  candidates  for  that  degree  may  claim  according 
as  they  secure  Junior  or  Senior  Standing — in  other  words 
for  the  "credit"  which  they  can  get  at  Oxford  for  work 
done  elsewhere.  Not  every  American  Rhodes  Scholar, 
however,  will  read  for  the  Final  Honour  Schools,  which 
lead  to  the  B.A.  degree.  Some  no  doubt  will  wish  to  be 
admitted  to  study  for  the  B.Litt.  or  B.Sc. — these,  at 
Oxford,  are  advanced  degrees — or  for  the  D.Phil. 

The    B.Litt.    and    B.Sc.    can    be    approached    either 


*N 


46  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

through  the  B.A.,  or  without  taking  that  degree  first. 
The  foreign  student  who  appHes  for  permission  to  read 
for  either  B.Litt.  or  B.Sc.  without  having  previously 
taken  the  Oxford  B.A.,  must: 

1.  be  over  21  years  of  age; 

2.  submit  evidence  to  the  Committee  for  Advanced  Studies 

that  he  has  received  a  good  general  education; 

3.  satisfy  the  Board  of  Facuhy  to  which  his  Subject  belongs 

that  he  is  "well  fitted  to  pursue"  such  a  course  of  special 
study  or  research  as  he  contemplates. 

All  necessary  evidence  to  this  end  must  be  transmitted, 
through  an  official  of  the  Oxford  college  of  which  the 
applicant  is,  or  is  going  to  be,  a  member,  to  the  Assistant 
Registrar,  who  will  then  bring  the  application  before  the 
different  bodies  concerned.  The  Board  of  Faculty  will 
approve  an  application  only  if  satisfied  that  the  proposed 
course  of  study  can  profitably  be  pursued  at  Oxford. 

The  status  of  a  student  reading  for  the  B.Litt.,  or 
B.Sc.  is  technically  that  of  an  undergraduate.  His  work 
will  be  graduate  in  character,  but  he  will  rank  for 
other  purposes  as  an  undergraduate. 

The  status  of  a  student  reading  for  the  D.Phil,  is  dif- 
ferent. He  is  not  an  ordinary  undergraduate,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  University,  but  an  "Advanced  Student."  He  wears 
a  distinctive  gown,  unless  already  a  graduate  of  Oxford 
(in  which  case  he  wears  the  gown  proper  to  his  degree). 
He  stands,  academically,  somewhere  between  under- 
graduates and  graduates;  of  which  intermediate  position, 
indeed,  his  gown  is  itself  a  symbol,  being  more  dignified 
than  the  ordinary  Commoner's  gown  while  at  the  same 
time  less  ample  than  the  gown  worn  by  Bachelors  of  Arts. 


ADMISSION  AND  STANDING  47 

The  foreign  student  who  wishes  to  be  admitted  to  the 
status  of  Advanced  Student,  without  having  previously 
taken  any  Oxford  examinations  or  degrees,  must  make 
his  appHcation  to  the  Committee  for  Advanced  Studies 
through  the  Assistant  Registrar,  submitting  at  the  same 
time  evidence: 

1.  that  he  is  not  less  than  22  years  of  age; 

2.  that  he  has  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  one  or  more 

universities  extending  over  four  years  at  the  least,  and 
has  obtained  a  degree; 

3.  that  he  is  fitted  to  enter  upon  his  proposed  course  of  study. 

If  the  Committee  for  Advanced  Studies  "approve"  the 
university,  or  universities,  in  question,  and  also  the  de- 
gree, and  are  satisfied  of  the  candidate's  fitness  to  pursue 
the  course  of  study  which  he  has  suggested,  he  will  be 
qualified  for  admission  as  an  Advanced  Student  on  ma- 
triculation (should  he  not  already  be  a  matriculated 
member  of  the  University)  as  soon  as  he  shall  have  paid 
"the  statutable  fee  of  five  pounds". 

It  may  be  well  in  conclusion  to  remind  Americans  that 
at  Oxford  the  line  between  graduate  and  undergraduate 
studies  is  less  distinct  than  it  is  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  students  themselves  less  separated.  Advanced  Stu- 
dents are  members  of  the  same  colleges  as  undergrad- 
uates; they  live  with  them,  and  share  (or  at  least  are 
free  to  share)  in  all  the  normal  activities  that  make  up  the 
life  of  a  college.  Rhodes  Scholars,  indeed,  are  not  merely 
"free  to"  share  in  that  life,  they  are  expected  to — whether 
their  status  be  Junior,  Senior,  or  Advanced. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  OXFORD  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION 

By  L.  A.  Crosby,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Maine  and  Trinity,  '13 

The  teaching  staff  at  Oxford  consists  of  (i)  University 
Professors,  Readers,  Lecturers,  and  Demonstrators, 
numbering  more  than  100;  and  (2)  about  300  College 
Fellows,  Tutors,  and  Lecturers.  All  are  grouped  into 
Faculties  as  follows:  Theology,  Law,  Medicine,  Literae 
Humaniores,  Modern  History,  Mediaeval  and  Modern 
Languages,  Oriental  Languages,  and  Natural  Science. ^i. 
Each  Faculty  has  a  Board  of  Faculty,  which  supervises 
the  subjects  of  examination,  prepares  lecture  lists,  and 
recommends  the  appointment  of  University  Lecturers 
and  Demonstrators.  There  is  also  a  General  Board  of 
the  Faculties;  and  with  the  institution  of  the  Doctorate 
of  Philosophy  for  "Advanced  Students"  there  has  been 
created  a  "Committee  for  Advanced  Studies". 

The  system  of  instruction  includes  lectures,  informal 
group  conferences,  and  personal  tuition.  Lectures  are 
given  by  both  University  and  College  teachers;  and  are 
practically  combined  into  one  system.  The  distinction 
between  strictly  professorial  and  strictly  college  lectures 
is  indeed  one  of  form  rather  than  substance.  The  Uni- 
versity co-operates  with  the  Colleges,  and  each  College 
with  every  other,  in  promoting  academic  harmony  and 
efficiency.      Practically  all  lectures,  even  those  held  in 

*  See  List  of  Members  of  Faculties,  Appendix  H. 


SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION  49 

college  lecture  rooms,  are  open  to  all  members  of  the 
University  without  conditions  or  payment  of  special 
fees.  There  is  also  co-operation  and  exchange  between 
the  Colleges  in  the  matter  of  providing  personal  tuition. 
A  course  of  lectures  on  any  particular  branch  or  aspect  of 
a  subject  ordinarily  consists  of  two  or  three  lectures  of 
one  hour  each  per  week  for  a  term  of  eight  weeks.  No 
record  is  kept  of  attendance,  but  an  undergraduate  is 
expected  to  attend  such  lectures  as  may  be  recommended 
by  his  tutor. 

In  some  departments  of  the  University,  and  especially 
among  graduate  students  the  use  of  the  group  conference 
or  seminar  is  prevalent. 
'  But  both  lectures  and  group  conferences  are  after  all 
^only  the  educational  superstructure  and  ornamentation 
of  Oxford.  The  real  heart  and  strength  of  the  Oxford 
system  is  personal  tuition  of  undergraduates  by  College 
Fellows  and  Tutors.  Immediately  on  arrival  in  the 
University,  each  undergraduate  is  assigned  by  his  College 
to  a  tutor.  The  tutor  is  a  Fellow,  Tutor,  or  Lecturer  of 
his  or  some  other  College,  subject  to  whose  guidance,  the 
undergraduate  will  pursue  his  studies  (or  "reading",  in 
the  Oxford  phrase)  during  terms  and  vacations  through- 
out his  course  at  the  University.  The  tutor  directs  the 
student's  work,  advises  him  to  attend  certain  lectures, 
and  to  read  certain  books.  Once  or  twice  weekly  the 
student  spends  an  hour  or  more  in  conference  with  the 
tutor;  at  which  time  he  usually  reads  an  essay  or  essays 
embodying  the  results  of  his  reading  since  the  last 
conference.  The  essay  is  followed  by  the  tutor's  com- 
ments and  criticism,  and  an  informal  discussion,  in  which 
the  tutor  aims  to  assist  the  undergraduate  in  the  analysis 


50  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

and  correct  statement  of  the  matter  involved.  The  sys- 
tem is  intensely  individualistic,  and  quite  free  from  for- 
mality; and  undoubtedly  operates  as  a  strong  incentive 
to  reading  and  thought  by  the  undergraduate.  It  fosters 
the  reading  habit  and  a  desire  for  culture,  which  are  of 
unusual  importance  since  Oxford  terms  are  short  and  the 
bulk  of  his  reading  must  be  done  by  the  undergraduate 
at  home  during  vacations.  The  tutor's  influence  is  not 
restricted  to  the  crowded  days  of  term. 

In  appearance  there  is  much  of  advice  but  little  of  com- 
pulsion about  the  Oxford  system.  There  are  no  "required 
courses"  as  such,  and  "credits"  and  "hours"  are  unheard 
^  of ;  even  attendance  at  lectures  is  not  strictly  compulsory. 
Once  matriculated,  the  undergraduate's  intellectual 
obligation  to  the  University  is  measured  only  by  his  own 
ambition;  if  he  desires  a  degree  (as  he  naturally  does) 
he  must  pass  certain  intermediate  examinations  and  a 
final  examination  at  the  end  of  his  course,  all  of  which 
are  set  by  the  University.  His  obligation  to  his  College 
is  less  formal  but  more  real.  Most  Colleges  will  not  admit 
or  retain  students  (except  in  special  cases)  unless  they 
seriously  intend  to  read  and  actually  do  read  seriously  for 
a  degree  of  some  sort.  While  the  tutor  may  not  compel 
the  student  to  attend  lectures,  he  will  keep  in  touch  with 
his  progress  week  by  week,  and  will  test  it  by  informal 
examinations  from  term  to  term.  If  the  tutorial  report 
is  not  satisfactory,  the  student  will  be  officially  warned 
by  the  Head  of  the  College  to  mend  his  ways;  too  great 
disregard  of  such  warnings  leads  to  suspension. 

The  advantages  of  the  Oxford  system  are  the  advan- 
tages of  personal  attention  and  adaptation  of  instruction 
M    to  personal  needs.    The  conscientious  and  able  tutor  will 


f^ 


/ 


rV^STEM  OF  EDUCATION  ^      51 

[greatly  assist  the  able  student;  and  will  stimulate  re-  j 
markably  the  mediocre  or  indifferent^  The  mediocre 
j  tutor  will  not  materially  affect  the  career  of  the  serious 
"student;  and  will  accomplish  little  for  the  rest.-  Stupid 
or  incorrigibly  lazy  students  will  do  no  more  and  probably 
no  less  under  this  system  than  under  any  other;  but  at 
any  rate  they  can  not  retard  the  progress  of  others. 

The  University  examination  system  furnishes  the  real 
moral  force  behind  the  informal  methods  of  undergradu- 
ate instruction  at  Oxford.  Especially  is  this  true  in  the 
so-called  "Honour  Schools"  which  embrace  two-thirds 
of  the  undergraduate  body.  In  each  of  these  Schools 
the  final  examination  stands  at  the  end  of  the  course 
and  covers  the  work  of  two  or  three  years.  The  standard 
and  character  of  the  examinations  is  such  as  to  promote 
a  thoroughness,  and  accuracy  in  preparation  and  study 
which  is  often  absent  from  undergraduate  work  in 
American  universities.  The  results  of  examinations  are 
'^^-elassed  and  published;  conspicuous  success  is  held  in 
high  esteem  throughout  the  University.  A  number  of 
University  prizes,  and  prize  scholarships'^  (distinct  from 
college  scholarships)  also  stimulate  intellectual  com- 
petition among  the  undergraduates. 

Graduate  study  at  Oxford  is  conducted  under  the 
direction  of  Supervisors,  one  or  more  of  whom  is  desig- 
nated for  each  student.  The  Supervisor  is  not  expected 
to  give  his  protege  systematic  instruction. 

The  University  year  is  divided  into  three  terms: 
Michaelmas  Term,  beginning  on  October  10  and  ending 
December  17;    Hilary  (or  Lent)  Term,  beginning  Janu- 

•  For  information  as  to  prizes,  etc.,  see  tiie  current  edition  of  the 
Oxford  University  Calendar,  published  annually  by  the  Clarendon  Press. 


52  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

ary  14,  and  ending  on  the  day  before  Palm  Sunday;  and 
Trinity  Term,  beginning  on  the  Wednesday  after  Easter 
Sunday,  and  ending  on  the  Saturday  after  the  first 
Tuesday  in  July.  A  term  is  "kept",  for  the  purposes  of  all 
statutory  requirements  of  residence,  by  six  weeks'  resi- 
dence in  Oxford.  Custom  and  college  regulations  have 
somewhat  modified  the  limits  of  the  terms  for  practical 
purposes  of  undergraduates,  so  that  the  dates  for  "coming 
up"  (taking  up  residence)  are  not  necessarily  the  exact 
dates  of  the  beginning  of  terms,  and  the  period  of  ter- 
minal residence  is  usually  eight  or  nine  weeks. 

"Residence",  or  as  it  is  defined  in  the  University 
statutes  "victum  sumere  et  pernoctare",  must  be  either 
(i)  within  the  walls  of  a  College  or  Hall;  or  (2)  in  lodgings 
licensed  by  the  University;  or  (3)  in  special  circum- 
stances, in  unlicensed  lodgings.  In  any  case  the  place  of 
residence  must  ordinarily  be  within  a  mile  and  a  half 
of  Carfax,  a  point  approximately  at  the  centre  of  the 
City.  Most  Colleges  and  Halls  prefer  that  their  under- 
graduates should  reside  during  their  first  year  or  two 
within  their  walls;  thereafter,  lack  of  rooms  makes  it 
generally  necessary  for  them  to  reside  in  lodgings. 

For  eligibility  for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts 
(B.A.)  nine  terms  of  residence  (three  years)  are  required; 
except  in  the  case  of  students  who  receive  "Junior"  or 
"Senior"  standing,  for  whom  this  is  reduced  to  six 
terms  (two  years).  The  residence  requirements  for 
graduate  or  special  degrees  are  stated  in  the  discussion 
of  these  degrees  in  Chapter  VI. 


CHAPTER  V 

COURSES  OF  STUDY:  THE  B.A.  DEGREE  AND 
THE  HONOUR  SCHOOLS 

By  L.  A.  ,Crosby,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Maine  and  Trinity,  '13 

Study  at  Oxford  is  generally  directed  toward  one  or 
another  of  the  degrees/  diplomas,  or  certificates  author- 
ized by  the  University  statutes.  These  include  the 
following : 

Degrees 

NAME  ABBREVIATION 

Bachelor  of  Arts  B.A. 

Master  of  Arts  M.A. 

Bachelor  of  Music  B.Mus. 

Doctor  of  Music  D.Mus. 

Bachelor  of  Letters  B.Litt. 

Doctor  of  Letters  D.Litt. 

Bachelor  of  Science  B.Sc. 

Doctor  of  Science  D.Sc. 

Doctor  of  Philosophy  D.Phil. 

Bachelor  of  Civil  Law  B.C.L. 

Doctor  of  Civil  Law  D.C.L. 

Bachelor  of  Medicine  (Surgery)  B.M.  (B.Ch.) 

Master  of  Surgery  M.Ch. 

Doctor  of  Medicine  D.M. 

Bachelor  of  Divinity  B.D. 

Doctor  of  Divinity  D.D. 

•  The  University  does  not  issue  diplomas  evidencing  the  bestowal  of 
degrees;  but  any  one  admitted  to  a  degree  can  obtain  a  certificate  of  his 
admission  thereto  from  the  Registrar  of  the  University  on  payment  of  a 
fee  of  five  shillings. 


54  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Diplomas 

are  given  for  prescribed  special  work  in : 

Anthropology-  Geography 

Classical  Archaeology  Public  Health 

Education  Ophthalmology 

Economics  and  Political  Science  Rural  Economy 

Forestry  Theology 

Certificates 

are  given  for  prescribed  special  work  in: 

Anthropology  Modern  History 

Geography  Surveying 

and  for  special  proficiency  in  the  use  of  French  or  German. 

For  each  and  all  of  these  titles  of  academic  achieve- 
ment, the  University  statutes  and  regulations  prescribe 
detailed  requirements  of  time  and  accomplishment. 
Time  in  this  connexion  may  mean  either  residence,  i.  e. 
actual  time  at  Oxford;  or  standing,  i.  e.  time  during 
which  a  person  has  been  a  member  of  the  University  and 
of  a  certain  status  therein,  although  not  necessarily  a 
resident  member.  Mental  attainment  or  accomplishment 
for  these  various  degrees,  diplomas  and  certificates  is 
determined  mainly  by  examinations,  written,  or  oral,  or 
both  written  and  oral ;  and  also,  for  the  research  degrees 
and  special  doctorates,  by  dissertations  or  published 
works. 

The  rules  applicable  to  all  these  matters  are  issued 
annually  by  the  University  in  the  form  of  "Examination 
Statutes",  published  by  the  Clarendon  Press.  Informa- 
tion contained  in  this  volume  may  be  amplified  and 
verified  to  date  by  reference  to  the  then  current  edition 
of  the  Examination  Statutes. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     55 
The  B.A.  Degree 

The  great  majority  of  students  in  residence  at 
the  University  at  any  time  are  engaged  in  preparing 
themselves  for  one  or  another  of  the  many  sets  of  ex- 
aminations which  are  held  annually  in  June  and  which 
lead  the  successful  candidate  to  the  degree  of  B.A. 
This  is  true  not  only  of  the  English  undergraduates,  who 
have  entered  the  University  directly  from  the  "public" 
schools;  but  also  of  Rhodes  scholars  and  other  students 
from  abroad.  The  B.A.  is,  practically  speaking,  the  most 
important  and  certainly  the  most  characteristic  Oxford 
degree. 

At  the  outset,  however,  it  must  be  understood  that 
there  is  a  fundamental  classification  of  B.A.'s,  cor- 
responding to  a  fundamental  grouping  of  all  under- 
graduate work  into  the  Pass  School,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  Honour  Schools,  on  the  other.  There  are  ten 
Honour  Schools,  one  Pass  School,  and  also  the  School  of 
Agriculture  and  Forestry,  which,  while  not  an  Honour 
School,  is  not  ordinarily  included  in  the  term  "Pass 
School".  The  ten  Honour  Schools  bear  titles  indicating 
their  subjects:  Literae  Humaniores  (Classics);  Mathe- 
matics; Natural  Science;  Jurisprudence;  Modern  His- 
tory; Theology;  Oriental  Studies;  English  Language 
and  Literature;  Modern  Languages;  and  Philosophy 
Politics  and  Economics. 

In  this  connexion  the  term  "School"  means  a  distinct 
set  of  University  examinations,  covering  the  School 
subject  and  its  various  branch  or  closely  related  sub- 
jects; a  distinct  course  of  lectures;  and  a  more  or  less 
organized  faculty — consisting  of  University   Professors, 


56  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Readers,  and  Lecturers,  and  of  College  Tutors,  Fellows, 
and  Lecturers,  in  the  subject  or  subjects  embraced  in  the 
School.  There  is  not  (except  in  the  case  of  the  Schools 
of  Modern  Languages,  Natural  Science,  and  Agriculture 
and  Forestry)  a  University  building  or  buildings  devoted 
to  any  particular  School;  nor  is  there  a  dean,  or  presi- 
dent,' or  other  administrative  officer.  The  physical 
marks  which  distinguish  a  separate  school  in  an  Amer- 
ican university  are  absent. 

The  undergraduates  of  the  Pass  School,  who  now 
number  about  one-fourth  of  the  student  body,  have  come 
to  the  University  for  experience,  self-culture,  develop- 
ment, and  social  life;  and  incidentally  for  a  certain 
amount  of  knowledge.  Their  subjects  of  study  are  not 
radically  distinguishable  in  variety  and  standard  of  work 
from  those  taken  by  an  average  and  scholastically  unam- 
bitious undergraduate  in  an  American  liberal  arts  college; 
and  their  tested  knowledge  at  the  end  of  their  course  will 
be  about  the  same.  If  they  succeed  in  their  examinations, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  University  they  will  have  merely 
"passed."  No  distinctions  are  open  to  them.  The  Pass 
School  has  its  own  examinations,  and  lectures;  and 
tutors  apply  Pass  methods  to  Pass-men.  The  Pass  School 
has  been  well  described  as  "a  varied  and  well-conceived 
(if  not  an  exacting)  programme  of  studies  for  those  who, 
although  averse  to  the  exertions  required  in  the  Honour 
Schools  .  .  .  may  nevertheless  be  inoculated  with  some 
tincture  of  the  liberal  arts."  The  work  of  this  School  can 
easily  be  done  in  three  years  from  matriculation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Honour  Schools  are  vastly 
superior,  in  method,  standard,  and  subject-matter. 
They  represent  high  standards  of  study,  more  or  less 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     57 

specialized.     Each   Honour  School   is  devoted   to   one 
general  subject,  or  collection  of  subjects  belonging  to  the 
same  general  branch  of  knowledge   {e.  g.   the  Natural 
Science  School,  which  includes  eight  distinct  sciences, 
each  of  which  is  actually  treated  as  a  School  in  itself). 
Each  has  its  lectures,  its  faculty,  its  system  of  examina- 
tions,   and    its   board   of   examiners.      Candidates    are 
publicly  classed  on  the  results  of  examinations;  and  the 
distinction  of  a  "first  class"  is  highly  prized.  The  Schools 
naturally  vary  in  severity,  as  in  subject-matter;  but  the 
Honours  B.A.  is  ntit  simple  and  easy  in  any  School. 
American   students,   even   those   who   have   previously 
done  some  post-graduate  study,  find  the  Honours  B.A.  a 
task  worthy  of  their  mettle;  while  those  who  have  not  fin- 
ished or  have  just  finished  undergraduate  work  in  America 
will  have  their  hands  full  if  they  attempt  to  win  a  first 
or  second  class.     The  English  undergraduate  normally 
spends  three  years  from  matriculation  on  such  Schools 
as  Jurisprudence,   Modern  History,  English  Literature, 
or  Modern  Languages;   and    four    on    Literae   Huma- 
niores.^   American  students   who   have    previously   fin- 
ished college  work  at  home  will  not  ordinarily  spend 
more  than  three  years  on  any  School;    and  those  who 
have    received    the    advantage    of     Senior     Standing 
will   frequently   finish    their    Honour    Schools   in   two 
years. 

Apart  from  and  in  addition  to  the  passing  of  the  pre- 
scribed examinations,  the  statutes  of  the  University  re- 
quire a  minimum  residence  at  Oxford  of  three  years 

» This  is  true  if  Literae  Humaniores  is  preceded  by  Honour  Modera- 
tions in  Greek  and  Latin  Literature,  as  is  usually  the  case;  otherwise  this 
School  can  be  done  in  three  years. 


58  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

(nine  terms)  as  a  qualification  for  the  degree  of  B.A. 
For  Junior  and  Senior  Students  this  is  shortened  to  two 
years  (six  terms). 

The  examinations  which  must  be  passed  by  candidates 
for  the  B.A.  are: 

1.  Responsions  (normally  passed  before  coming  into  residence, 

but  not  required  of  Junior  or  Senior  Students); 

2.  An  Intermediate  Examination,  the  subjects  of  which  are 

open  to  a  limited  election  on  the  part  of  the  student,  but 
which  necessarily  includes  an  examination  in  Holy 
Scripture  or  the  statutory  equivalent.  Senior  Students 
are  exempt  from  the  Intermediate  Examination; 

3.  A  Final  Examination. 

Responsions 

Responsions,  the  first  examination  in  the  course  for 
the  B.A.  degree,  while  not  strictly  an  "entrance  examina- 
tion" (the  University  as  such  has  no  entrance  examina- 
tion), practically  serves  that  purpose;  for  the  Colleges 
do  not  normally  admit  a  candidate  for  that  degree  into 
residence  until  he  has  passed  this  examination. 

Until  1920  Responsions  was  a  rigidly  prescribed  exam- 
ination in  Greek,  Latin,  and  Mathematics.  In  that  year 
it  was  subjected  to  a  reform  which  has  made  Greek  an 
optional  rather  than  a  compulsory  subject.  But  students 
who  contemplate  pursuing  any  one  of  the  Final  Honour 
Schools  of  Literae  Humaniores;  Modern  History; 
Theology;  Oriental  Studies;  English  Language  and 
Literature;  Modern  Languages;  or  Philosophy,  Politics 
and  Economics;  must  either  offer  Greek  at  Responsions, 
or  the  language  or  a  portion  of  Greek  history  or  litera- 
ture with  texts  in  translation  at  the  Intermediate  Exam- 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS      59 

ination.  From  students  contemplating  the  Final  Honour 
Schools  of  Mathematics,  Natural  Science,  and  Juris- 
prudence, the  Pass  School,  or  the  School  of  Agriculture 
and  Forestry,  no  knowledge  of  Greek  or  of  Greek  history 
or  literature  is  required  at  any  time;  but  at  Responsions 
those  who  do  not  offer  Greek  must  offer  Latin. 

Responsions  now  includes  examinations  in  the  follow- 
ing subjects: 

Group      I  (a)  Latin,  (6)  Greek; 

Group  II  (a)  English — History  or  Literature,  {b)  French, 
(c)  German; 

Group  III  (a)  Mathematics — Arithmetic,  Algebra  and  Geome- 
try, {b)  Natural  Science — Elementary  Chem- 
istry or  Elementary  Physics,  (c)  Mathematics 
and  Natural  Science. 

Candidates  must  pass  either  in  both  subjects  of  Group  I 
and  the  first  two  subjects  from  Group  HI;  or  in  at  least 
one  subject  from  each  Group  and  in  four  subjects  in  all; 
two  of  such  subjects  must  be  languages  other  than  Eng- 
lish and  at  least  three  subjects  must  be  passed  at  one 
examination. 

The  standard  of  examinations  in  Responsions  is  not 
materially  different  from  that  of  entrance  examinations 
at  Harvard  University,  except  in  the  classics,  where  it  is 
undoubtedly  higher. 

The  Intermediate  Examination 

Once  over  the  academic  threshold  of  the  University 
the  student  turns  toward  the  Intermediate  and  Final 
Examinations.  And  here  he  is  confronted  with  a 
fundamental    choice — the    choice    between    "Pass"    and 


6o  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

"Honour"  examinations.  Theoretically  there  are  four 
possible  paths  open  to  him :  he  may  elect  to  take  (a)  Pass 
Examinations  in  both  Intermediate  and  Final;  (b)  Pass 
Examination  in  the  Intermediate  and  Honours  in  the 
Final;  (c)  Honours  in  both  Intermediate  and  Final;  or 
(d)  Honours  in  the  Intermediate  and  Pass  in  the  Final. 
But  practically  the  choice  is  not  entirely  free  with  the 
student.  Some  colleges  which  pride  themselves  on 
scholarship  will  not  admit  students  to  read  for  anything 
less  than  Honours  in  the  Final  Examination.  Rhodes 
Scholars  are  expected  to  take  Honours  in  the  Final; 
if  they  do  so,  they  are  free  to  take  either  Pass  or  Honours 
in  the  Intermediate  Examination.  All  Senior  Students, 
whether  Rhodes  Scholars  or  not,  are  exempt  from  the 
Intermediate  Examination  and  are  required  to  take 
Honours  in  the  Final  Examination. 

The  Intermediate  Examination "^ includes  the  following 
examinations : 

1.  Examination  in  Holy  Scripture. 

2.  Honour  Moderations  in  Greek  and  Latin  Literature. 

3.  Honour  Moderations  in  Mathematics. 

4.  Pass  Moderations. 

5.  Preliminary  Examination  in  Jurisprudence. 

6.  Preliminary  Examination  in  Modern  History. 

7.  Preliminary  Examination  in  Natural  Science. 

8.  Preliminary  Examination  in  Agriculture  and  Forestry. 

Of  these  the  first  is  compulsory  for  all  candidates  for  the 
B.A.  degree  save  students  with  Senior  Standing;  and, 

1  The  term  "Intermediate  Examination"  is  not  found  in  the  University 
statutes,  the  official  title  for  the  above  group  of  examinations  being 
"First  Public  Examination."  The  term  "Intermediate  Examination"  is 
employed  here  to  express  more  clearly  to  readers  not  versed  in  Oxonian 
statutes  the  nature  and  purpose  of  these  examinations. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     6i 

with  the  same  exception,  all  must  pass  one  of  the  others. 
Numbers  2  and  3  are  Honour  Examinations;  the  others 
are  Pass  Examinations.  The  student's  first  duty  is  to 
select  from  among  numbers  2  to  8  the  examination  best 
suited  to  his  purposes  and  to  his  intended  Final 
School. 

By  a  recent  reform,  the  academic  effects  of  these 
examinations  have  been  equalized ;  that  is  to  say,  having 
passed  the  examination  in  Holy  Scripture  and  any  one 
of  the  other  forms  of  Intermediate  Examination,  the 
student  will  be  admitted  to  any  Final  School,  Pass  or 
iHonour}  Of  course  certain  forms  of  the  Intermediate 
jExamination  are  better  suited  than  others  to  prepare  the 
■''student  for  particular  Final  Schools  (e.  g.,  the  Preliminary 
Examination  in  Jurisprudence,  for  the  Jurisprudence 
School)  but,  so  far  as  University  statutes  and  regulations 
are  concerned,  all  are  equally  avenues  to  any  Final 
School.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  table  in  Appendix  G, 
showing  examinations  for  the  B.A.  degree. 

The  subjects  of  the  Intermediate  Examinations  are 
as  follows: 

I.  Examination  in  Holy  Scripture:  Candidates  are 
examined  in 

1  But  see  page  58,  regarding  requirement  of  Greek  or  Greek  history 
or  literature  at  Intermediate  Examination  from  certain  classes  of  students 
who  may  not  have  offered  Greek  at  Responsions.  In  the  case  of  Junior 
Students,  within  these  classes,  this  restriction  may  be  removed  by  taking 
Greek  History  or  Literature  along  with  their  Intermediate  Examination 
or  by  presenting  satisfactory  proof  to  the  Hebdomadal  Council  of  their 
having  acquired  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  Greek  at  their  previous  uni- 
versities. In  the  case  of  Senior  Students,  the  point  does  not  arise  as  they 
are  exempt  from  the  Intermediate  Examination. 


62  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

(a)  Either  one  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  the  Gospel  of 

St.  John  in  the  Greek  text,  or  the  four  Gospels  in  Eng- 
lish in  the  Revised  Version;  and 

(b)  The  subject-matter  of  either  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  or 

an  equivalent  portion  of  the  Old  or  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment (Revised  Version). 

Only  candidates  who  object  on  religious  grounds  to 
the  examination  in  Holy  Scripture  are  entitled  to  offer 
the  equivalent,  which  may  be  either  Plato's  Apologia, 
Meno,  or  Pascal's  Pensees. 

2.  Honour  Moderations  in  Greek  and  Latin  Literature 
("Honour  Mods")  is  an  examination  of  more  than  aver- 
age difficulty  and  requires  thorough  and  conscientious 
preparation — the  English  undergraduate  does  not  ordi- 
narily take  this  examination  until  the  end  of  the  fifth 
term  from  matriculation.  The  candidate  (i)  must  be 
prepared  to  translate  any  passage  from  Homer,  Virgil, 
Demosthenes  and  Cicero;  (2)  he  must  choose  for  special 
study  at  least  three  authors  from  a  list  of  Greek  and  Latin 
authors  and  be  prepared  to  answer  questions  on  the  text, 
contents,  style  and  literary  history;  (3)  a  difficult  Latin 
prose  composition  is  set;  as  are  also  (4)  unprepared 
translations  from  Greek  and  Latin,  and  (5)  a  general 
paper  covering  Greek  and  Latin  grammar,  literary 
criticism,  and  classical  antiquities.  Besides  these,  candi- 
dates must  of¥er  at  least  one  from  the  following  subjects 
treated  historically:  Greek  Drama;  Attic  Oratory; 
Latin  Prose  Style;  Roman  Poetry;  Deductive  Logic, 
Comparative  Philology,  or  Syntax,  of  Greek  and  Latin; 
Greek  Sculpture;  Homeric  Archaeology;  Greek  Textual 
Criticism ;  the  detailed  study  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  Site. 
Papers  are  set  in  Greek  prose  composition,  and  Greek 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     03 

and  Latin  verse  composition;  and  candidates  who  desire 
a  high  class  are  expected  to  do  at  least  one  of  these.  There 
is  no  viva  voce  examination.  Honour  Mods  is  naturally 
intimately  connected  with  the  Final  Classical  School. 

3.  Honour  Moderations  in  Mathematics  is  taken  princi- 
pally by  those  who  intend  to  pursue  the  Final  School  in 
Mathematics,  Astronomy,  Physics  or  Engineering  Sci- 
ence. It  includes  Algebra,  Trigonometry,  Pure  and 
Analytical  Geometry,  Differential  and  Integral  Calculus, 
and  Elements  of  Mechanics  of  Solids  and  Fluids.  There 
is  no  viva  voce  examination. 

4.  Pass  Moderations,  formerly  an  examination  in 
Greek,  Latin,  Mathematics  and  Logic,  now  includes  three 
groups  of  subjects,  as  follows:  (i)  Latin,  Greek;  (2) 
English,  Greek  History  or  Literature,  French,  German; 
(3)  Mathematics  (Algebra  and  either  Geometry  or  Trigo- 
nometry), Logic,  The  Elements  of  Political  Economy. 
Candidates  must  pass  at  least  one  subject  from  each 
group  and  four  subjects  in  all;  of  which  two  must  be 
languages  other  than  English.  No  candidate  may  offer 
more  than  one  subject  from  Group  (3).  The  examina- 
tion is  both  written  and  viva  voce. 

5.  The  Preliminary  Examination  in  Jurisprudence 
includes:  the  text  of  the  Institutes  of  Justinian;  outlines 
of  English  Constitutional  History;  Barthelemy,  Le  Gou- 
vernement  de  la  France;  unprepared  translation  from  Latin 
and  French  prose  authors.  The  examination  is  both 
written  and  viva  voce,  and  is  generally  taken  by  students 
intending  to  read  for  the  School  of  Jurisprudence. 

6.  The  Preliminary  Examination  in  Moderyi  History 
includes:  (i)  Outlines  of  European  History  either  (a) 
from  800  to  1494  or  {b)  from  1494  to  1789;  (2)  original 


64  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

texts  illustrating  history  (those  prescribed  require  a 
knowledge  of  Latin,  and  of  Greek,  French,  German  or 
Italian) ;  (3)  unprepared  translation  from  Latin,  Greek, 
French,  German  and  Italian  (one  ancient  and  one  modern 
language  must  be  offered) ;  (4)  Elements  of  Economic 
Theory.  The  examination  is  both  written  and  viva  voce. 
The  History  Preliminary  is  the  most  appropriate  avenue 
to  the  Final  School  of  Modern  History,  and  is  well 
adapted  to  that  of  Philosophy,  Politics  and  Economics. 

7.  The  Preliminary  Examination  in  Natural  Science 
embraces  a  number  of  separate  preliminary  examinations 
in  distinct  sciences — the  candidate  being  free  to  select 
that  which  he  intends  to  pursue  in  the  Final  School.  The 
subjects  in  which  preliminary  examinations  are  held  are: 
Mathematics,  Mechanics  and  Physics,  Chemistry,  Bi- 
ology (Zoology  and  Botany),  Physics  and  Chemistry. 
The  candidate  must  pass  in  two  of  the  foregoing  subjects 
or  pairs  of  subjects  selected  according  to  detailed  require- 
ments explained  in  the  Examination  Statutes.  The  exam- 
ination is  written  and  practical.  The  Science  Preliminary 
is  rarely  taken  except  by  men  who  intend  to  read  the 
School  of  Natural  Science. 

8.  The  Preliminary  Examination  in  the  School  of 
Agriculture  and  Forestry  embraces  certain  elementary 
aspects  of  these  subjects  and  of  related  sciences,  as  well 
as  a  knowledge  of  French  or  German. 

What  is  substantially  a  ninth  form  of  the  Intermediate 
Examination  is  established  by  the  statutory  provision 
that  a  student  who  passes  the  examination  in  Holy 
Scripture  and  also  Group  A  (i)  (Greek  and  Latin)  or 
Group  B  (2)  and  (5)  (French  and  German)  of  the  Final 
Pass  School,  is  not  required  to  pass  any  other  form  of 
Intermediate  (i.  e..  First  Public)  Examination.  This  pro- 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS  65 

vision  is  frequently  taken  advantage  of  by  candidates 
for  the  Honour  School  of  Modern  Languages. 

Having  passed  the  Intermediate  Examination,  the 
student  for  the  B.A.  then  faces  the  Final  Examination, 
Pass  or  Honour.  If  he  is  a  Rhodes  Scholar  he  will  have 
chosen  the  latter. 

The  Final  Examination^ 

A.   The  Honour  Schools 

The  Honour  Schools  are  at  once  indigenous  and  pecu- 
liar to  Oxford.  While,  as  has  been  noted,  they  present  a 
measure  of  specialization  in  undergraduate  education, 
their  scope  is  not  so  cramped  as  to  result  in  the  narrow- 
ness often  attendant  upon  immature  research.  The 
centralization  of  the  student's  effort,  and  its  due  intensi- 
fication, is  assisted  by  the  methods  of  examination. 
Once  the  Intermediate  Examination  is  passed  (which, 
except  in  the  case  of  Honour  or  Math  Mods,  is  ordi- 
narily done  within  two  or  three  terms  from  matricula- 
tion), the  University  does  not  again  examine  the  student 
until  the  very  end  of  his  course.  But  at  that  time  he  is 
called  upon  to  render  account  of  his  entire  stewardship. 
The  Final  Honour  Examination  in  each  School  ordinarily 
consists  of  a  number  (eight  to  twelve)  of  three-hour 
written  papers,  given  morning  and  afternoon  on  consecu- 
tive days. 2  The  candidate  has  thus  no  time  for  rest  or 
cramming  between  tests.  His  knowledge  must  have 
been   carefully   acquired   and   thoroughly   mastered   to 

*  The   Final   Examination   also   bears   the    statutory    title:    "Second 
Public  Examination". 
» Exclusive  of  Sunda>-s. 


66  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

stand  the  strain  and  be  at  his  ready  command.  A  quick 
recollection  will  not  save  him.  This  is  all  the  more  true 
since  the  best  examination  papers  must  be  rather  in  the 
nature  of  essays  than  mere  short  answers  to  questions. 
The  papers  usually  contain  about  twice  as  many  ques- 
tions as  the  student  is  expected  to  attempt — so  that  his 
individual  preference  and  special  talents  may  be  given 
as  great  freedom  and  opportunity  as  may  be  compatible 

—  with  a  general  knowledge  of  all  important  parts  of  his 
subject.  He  is  ordinarily  well  advised  to  write  a  full 
hour  on  his  best  question.  At  some  later  date  which  may 
be  from  a  week  to  six  weeks  after  the  completion  of  the 
written  examination,  the  student  is  called  up  for  a  public 
viva  voce  examination' — which  may  be  as  brief  as  ten 
minutes  or  as  long  as  an  hour  and  a  half,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  examiners. 
^/"jThe  system  is  administered  with  an  eye  to  its  purpose 

\/  — to  bring  out  and  develop  originality  of  thought  and 

L power  of  expression. 
Results  of  examinations  are  published  in  the  Univer- 
sity and  in  the  London  press;  and  great  value  is  attached 
to  a  first  or  even  to  a  second  class. 

In  order  to  be  eligible  for  admission  to  any  of  the  Final 
Examinations  in  the  Honour  Schools,  in  the  Pass  School, 
or  in  the  School  of  Agriculture  and  Forestry,  all  of  which 
lead  to  the  degree  of  B.A.,  the  candidate  must  either  (i) 
have  passed  some  form  of  Intermediate  Examination 
as  well  as  the  examination  in  Holy  Scripture;  or  (2)  have 
received  Senior  Standing;  or  (3)  have  passed  the  exam- 
ination in  Holy  Scripture  and  have  passed  Group  A  (i) 

>  Except  in  the  Honour  Schools  of  Mathematics,  and  of  Natural 
Science. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     67 

(Greek  and  Latin)  or  Group  B  (2)  and  (5)  (French  and 
German)  in  the  Final  Pass  School  (see  page  99) ;  or  (4) 
have  received  Honours  in  some  other  Final  Honour 
School.  Furthermore,  the  candidate,  to  be  eligible  for  a 
Class,  must  have  entered  upon  at  least  the  eighth  term 
from  his  matriculation  (in  the  case  of  Junior  and  Senior 
Students,  the  fifth). 

As  we  have  said  (Page  61)  recent  legislation  has  made 
one  form  of  Intermediate  Examination  as  good  as  another 
for  general  purposes  of  eligibility  for  Final  Examinations, 
but  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  most  forms  of  the  Inter- 
mediate Examination  are  more  or  less  closely  related  to, 
and  particularly  suitable  as  preparation  for,  certain  cor- 
responding Final  Schools.  Thus  the  liberality  of  the 
statutory  rule  is  in  practice  somewhat  limited  by  the 
logic  of  facts;  and  we  find  the  majority  of  students  take 
that  form  of  Intermediate  Examination  most  appro- 
priate as  a  preliminary  to  the  Final  Examination  which 
they  have  in  mind;  for  example,  students  of  Law  usually 
take  the  Preliminary  Examination  in  Jurisprudence; 
those  in  Modern  History,  the  Preliminary  in  Modern 
History;  those  in  Natural  Science,  the  Preliminary  in 
that  subject;  those  of  the  Classics,  either  Honour  or 
Pass  Moderation;  and  those  in  Mathematics,  Honour 
Moderations  in  Mathematics. 

In  the  detailed  descriptions  of  the  Final  Examinations 
of  the  several  Schools  which  are  found  on  subsequent 
pages,  this  fact  has  been  recognized  by  mentioning,  in 
the  appropriate  cases,  the  requirements  of  the  "corre- 
sponding" (but  not  required)  form  of  the  Intermediate 
Examination.  Despite  some  necessary  repetition  this 
is  desirable  in  order  to  present  in  connection  with  each 


68  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

of  the  several  Final  Schools,  and  in  one  place,  an  outline 
of  the  complete  course  which  is  usually  followed  after 
Responsions  by  the  average  undergraduate  who  has 
elected  to  read  for  such  School.  Our  readers  should  bear 
in  mind,  however:  (i)  that  the  form  of  Intermediate 
Examination  mentioned  hereafter  in  connection  with 
any  particular  Final  School  is  but  one  of  several  forms 
open  to  the  student;  (2)  that  all  except  Senior  Students 
must  pass  the  examination  in  Holy  Scripture;  and  (3) 
that  Senior  Students  are  also  exempt  from  the  Inter- 
mediate Examination. 

I.    Honour  School  of  Literae  Humaniores 

Requirements 

The  Honour  School  of  Literae  Humaniores  officially 
includes  only  a  Final  Honour  Examination.  But  since 
the  larger  number  of  undergraduates  who  read  "Greats" 
(as  the  School  is  unofficially  entitled),  in  any  given  year, 
have  previously  read  Honour  Moderations  in  Greek  and 
Latin  Literature  ("Honour  Mods"),  it  is  desirable  to 
repeat  and  amplify  what  has  already  been  said  regarding 
this  form  of  Intermediate  Examination, 

Honour  Moderations  in  Greek  and  Latin  Literature 

This  examination  demands  of  the  candidate  a  thorough 
and  critical  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek  texts,  and  a 
thorough  command  of  Latin  and  Greek  prose  composi- 
tion. It  is  the  most  difficult  of  the  Intermediate  Exam- 
inations, and  is,  indeed,  unfairly  described  as  "prelim- 
inary". Undergraduates  who  have  not  specialized  in 
the  classics  at  some  other  university  spend  at  least  one 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     69 

year  and  half  another  in  preparation  for  Honour  Mods, 
The  subjects  of  the  examination  include 

1 .  Translations  of  passages  from  Homer,  Virgil,  Demosthenes, 

and  Cicero's  orations. 

2.  Translations  of  passages  from  Greek  and  Latin  authors 

other  than  the  above  named. 

3.  Portions  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors  specially  offered; 

candidates  are  required  to  offer  three  books  selected 
from  a  prescribed  list  and  to  answer  questions  bearing 
upon  their  contents,  style  and  literary  history. 

4.  Questions   are   also  set   in   Greek   and   Latin   grammar, 

literary  criticism  and  antiquities. 

5.  Candidates  must  offer  one  of  the  following  subjects: 
Histor>'  of  the  Greek  Drama,  with  Aristotle's  Poetics. 
History  of  Attic  Oratory. 

History  of  Roman  Poetry  to  the  end  of  the  Augustan  Age. 

History  of  Latin  Prose  St}le. 

The  Elements  of  Deductive  Logic. 

Comparative  Philology  as  applied  to  Greek  and  Latin  with 
a  special  knowledge  of  Greek  or  Latin  Philology,  or  the 
Historical  and  Analytical  Syntax  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Languages. 

Outlines  of  the  history  of  Greek  Sculpture. 

Homeric  Archaeology. 

The  elements  of  either  Greek  or  Latin  textual  criticism. 

The  detailed  study  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  Site. 

6.  Latin  Prose  Composition. 

Papers  are  also  set  in  Greek  Prose  Composition,  and  in 
Greek  and  Latin  V^erse  Composition;  candidates  who 
omit  either  or  both  of  these  papers  are  strongly  recom- 
mended to  offer  additional  work  under  other  parts  of 
the  examination. 

In  the  assignment  of  Honours  account  is  taken  of  the 
total  amount  of  work  offered  by  the  candidate  and  of  the 
average  of  excellence  attained  by  his  papers  as  a  whole. 


70  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  usual  route  to  the  Final  Honour  School  of  Literae 
Humaniores  is  via  Honour  Mods.  Nevertheless  Honour 
Mods  is  not  a  prerequisite.  Students  will  be  admitted  to 
the  Final  Examination  provided  they  have  passed  some 
other  form  of  Intermediate  Examination  and  in  any 
case  the  examination  in  Holy  Scripture  (see  page  60), 
or  have  obtained  Senior  Standing,  or  have  obtained 
Honours  in  some  other  Final  Honour  School. 

Final  Examination 

The  Final  Examination  in  Greats  includes  both  stated 
(or  required)  and  special  (or  optional)  subjects,  as  follows: 

Stated  Subjects 

1.  The  Greek  and  Latin  Languages;  candidates  are  expected 

to  translate  passages  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  texts 
offered  by  them  for  the  examination,  and  to  translate 
passages  from  other  such  texts  not  specially  offered. 
English  passages  are  set  for  translation  into  Greek  and 
Latin  prose ;  candidates  are  required  to  take  one  of  these 
compositions  and  recommended  to  take  both. 

2.  The  Histories  of  Ancient  Greece  and  Rome;  all  candidates 

are  required  to  offer  a  period  of  Greek  and  a  period  of 
Roman  History,  selected  from  prescribed  lists,  and 
studied  with  reference  to  prescribed  texts  of  classical 
historians;  candidates  are  expected  to  have  a  knowledge 
of  Classical  Geography  and  Antiquities  and  of  the 
General  History  of  Greece  and  of  Rome. 

3.  Philosophy;  candidates  are  required  to  offer  one  book  of 

Plato  and  one  of  Aristotle  from  a  prescribed  list,  and  in 

addition  are  examined  in: 
Logic,  including  questions  in  Metaphysics  and  Psychology; 
Moral  Philosophy;  and 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     71 

Political   Philosophy,   including   the  outlines  of   Political 
Economy. 

Candidates  are  also  expected  to  have  a  knowledge  of  the  His- 
tory of  Philosophy. 

Special  Subjects 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  attainment  of  the  highest  honours 
that  a  Special  Subject  should  be  offered;  but  great 
weight  is  attached  to  excellence  in  a  Special  Subject. 
Candidates  are  permitted  to  oflfer  one  Special  Subject 
selected  from  a  prescribed  list  embracing  three  general 
classes:  Greek  and  Latin  Languages;  i\ncient  History; 
Philosophy. 

For  the  purposes  of  the  Final  Examination  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  LatLi  Languages  is 
taken  to  include  the  minute  critical  study  of  authors  or 
portions  of  authors  offered,  the  history  of  ancient 
literature,  and  comparative  philology;  the  study  of  the 
histories  of  Ancient  Greece  and  of  Rome  is  taken  to 
include  classical  archaeology  and  art  and  the  law  of 
Greece  and  of  Rome. 

Explanatory  Note 

In  the  undergraduate  side  of  American  universities  the 
classics  are  taught  and  studied  as  one  element  in  a  "liberal 
arts"  course.  At  Oxford  they  are  the  foundation  of  an 
entire  School,  and  what  is  more,  this  School, although  now 
smaller  in  numbers  than  one  or  two  other  more  "modern" 
or  "practical"  Schools,  is  justly  the  most  famous  in  the 
University.  The  strenuous  combination — Honour  Mods 
and  Greats — is  generally  admitted  to  present  the  best 
mental  training  which  the  LIniversity  affords.    With  all 


72  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

due  respect  to  Cambridge  and  to  the  universities  of 
America  and  the  British  dominions  it  is  probably  the 
best  undergraduate  course  in  the  classics,  ancient  history, 
and  ancient  and  modern  philosophy,  to  be  found  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  world. 

It  is  indeed  misleading  to  speak  of  Greats  as  a  "classi- 
cal" School.  It  is  not  a  mere  Greek  and  Latin  School  as 
that  term  might  indicate.  Success  in  the  School  requires 
a  thorough  mastery  of  both  languages  and  a  familiarity 
with  many  texts,  to  be  sure;  but  after  all,  the  languages 
and  the  texts  serve  but  as  the  approach  to  the  broader 
purpose  of  Greats,  namely,  to  secure  to  the  student  a 
real  knowledge  of  the  two  greatest  civilizations  of 
history:  the  Greek  and  the  Roman. 

The  three  years  allowed  to  the  Rhodes  Scholar  are 
rather  too  short  to  do  both  Honour  Mods  and  Greats 
satisfactorily  unless  a  considerable  portion  of  the  ground 
has  been  previously  covered.  The  English  undergradu- 
ates almost  invariably  spend  four  years;  the  best  of 
them  have  in  their  preparatory  schools  read  much  more 
Latin  and  Greek  than  the  ordinary  American  student  in 
school  and  university  combined,  and  because  of  their 
early  training  in  prose  and  verse  composition  they  have 
as  well  a  more  direct  command  over  their  knowledge. 
If,  however.  Honour  Mods  is  not  attempted,  Greats 
can  be  creditably  done  in  three  years,  or  even  in  two. 

Honour  Mods  contains  something  like  the  American 
courses  in  Greek  and  Latin  literature  in  the  detailed 
study  of  certain  prescribed  texts;  it  includes,  however, 
a  far  wider  range  of  supplementary  reading  both  in  the 
ancient  authors  and  in  modern  literary  and  textual  criti- 
cism bearing  on  them.     A  man  who  has  done  well  in 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     73 

Honour  Mods  has  an  intelligent  acquaintance  with  the 
whole  field  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature,  and  a  real 
command  of  the  essentials  of  grammar  and  prose  com- 
position. 

Greats  consists  especially  of  the  careful  study  of  one 
important  period  in  Greek  history,  one  in  Roman  history, 
and  of  a  general  review  of  ethical,  political  and  specula- 
tive philosophy.  The  student  has  the  help  not  only  of 
lecturers  but  also  of  tutorial  conferences  during  which 
his  tutors  correct  and  criticize  his  essays.  In  general, 
however,  he  is  trained  to  study  for  himself,  and  to  develop 
a  mature  attitude  toward  his  work. 

In  both  the  historical  periods  the  teaching  proceeds 
from  an  adequate  reading  of  the  ancient  sources  in  the 
original,  and  the  student  follows  the  critical  methods  of 
the  modern  historian.  Similarly  the  teaching  in  philoso- 
phy rests  less  on  modern  manuals  than  on  a  genetic  study 
of  original  thought,  ranging  from  Plato  and  Aristotle 
through  Descartes,  Hobbes,  Kant,  and  others,  to  Bergson 
and  Graham  Wallas.  In  this  side  of  the  work  particu- 
larly there  is  much  scope  for  individual  emphasis.  The 
examination  papers  contain  about  a  dozen  questions  of 
which  not  more  than  half  are  to  be  answered  by  each 
student,  and  these  range  from  technical  disputes  as  to 
the  meaning  of  passages  from  Plato,  to  pragmatism  and 
the  single-tax.  Thus  the  instruction  changes  constantly 
in  order  that  due  cognizance  may  be  taken  of  current 
movements  in  speculative  thought  and  community  life. 

The  true  value  of  Honour  Mods  and  Greats  for  the 
student  who  is  preparing  for  an  active  life  lies  not  in  any 
particular  body  of  facts  memorized.  The  work  involved 
removes    juvenile    errors    and    supplies    a    method    of 


74  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

approach  to  every  major  activity  of  the  human  mind 
outside  of  mathematics  and  the  physical  sciences. 
Although  the  Oxford  student  of  Greats  touches  modern 
life  at  fewer  of  the  obvious  points  than  does  the  Ameri- 
can "liberal  arts"  undergraduate,  the  matters  which  he 
correlates  with  modern  life  are  fundamental,  and  their 
correlation  is  the  more  profitable  for  its  very  difficulty. 

2.  Honour  School  of  Mathematics 

Requirements 

The  Honour  School  of  Mathematics  consists  of  a  Final 
Honour  Examination  leading  to  the  degree  of  B.A.  But 
for  practical  purposes  the  School  is  really  a  further 
advance  by  the  student  from  the  almost  necessary 
preliminary  examination  known  as  Honour  Moderations 
in  Mathematics  ("Math  Mods").^  It  is  generally  true 
that,  unless  a  student  has  specialized  in  Mathematics 
at  some  university  prior  to  coming  to  Oxford,  his  only 
road  to  success  in  the  Final  School  is  through  the  pre- 
paratory path  of  Math  Mods. 

The  subjects  covered  by  the  examination  in  Math 
Mods  are  as  follows: 

1.  Algebra;     Theory    of    Equations;     Plane    and    Spherical 

Trigonometry.  (No  questions  are  set  on  the  theory  of 
Infinite  Products,  or  on  theorems  of  Uniform  Conver- 
gency;  but  simple  questions  involving  the  principles  of 
the  theory  of  Uniform  Convergency  are  set.) 

2.  Pure  Geometry';   Analytical  Geometry  of  two  dimensions, 

excluding  the  theory  of  Invariants  and  Covariants  of 

'  For  other  avenues  to  the  Final  Examination  see  page  SQ,  et  seq. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     75 

two  Conies;  Analytical  Geometry  of  three  dimensions  as 
far  as  the  simpler  properties  of  Surfaces  of  the  Second 
Order,  excluding  the  theory  of  Confocal  Surfaces. 

3.  Differential  and   Integral  Calculus,  with   simple  applica- 

tions to  Plane  and  Solid  Geometry;  Differential  Equa- 
tions. 

4.  The  Elements  of  the  Statics  of  Solids  and  Fluids;    the 

Elements  of  the  Dynamics  of  Particles,  and  of  Rigid 
Bodies  moving  in  two  dimensions. 

For  the  Final  Honour  Examination  in  Mathematics 
the  subjects,  beginning  with  the  year  1923-24,  will  be 
six  papers  on  the  subjects  Hsted  in  Schedule  A  below  and 
special  subjects  selected  by  the  candidate  from  the  list 
in  Schedule  B.  No  candidate  can  take  a  First  Class  unless 
he  satisfies  the  examiners  in  at  least  one  special  subject, 
while  no  candidate  may  offer  more  than  two  special 
subjects. 

SCHEDULE  A 

Pure  Mathematics 

Algebra:  Theory  of  Numbers;  Determinants;  Theory  of  Equations; 
Quantics. 

Anal3'sis:  Theory  of  Convergence;  Differential  Calculus;  Integral 
Calculus;  Differential  Equations;  Calculus  of  Variations;  Theory  of 
Functions. 

Geometry:  Plane,  Solid. 

Mixed  Mathematics 

Statics;  Attractions;  Particle  Dynamics;  Rigid  Dynamics;  Hydro- 
statics. 

Optics. 

Astronomy:  Uniform  Circular  Motion  and  Inequalities  thereof; 
The  Sphere  and  its  Plane  Projections;  Corrections  of  Observed  Positions. 


76  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


SCHEDULE  B 

1.  Theory  of  Numbers.  lo.   Higher      Dynamics.      Hydro- 

2.  Algebraic  Forms.  dynamics,   Dynamical  The- 

3.  Theory  of  Groups.  ory  of  Sound. 

4.  Synthetic  Geometry.  11.  Elasticity. 

5.  Algebraic  Geometry.  12.  Electricity  and  Magnetism. 

6.  Differential  Geometry.  13.  Geometrical    and    Physical 
/.  Theory  of  Functions.  Optics. 

8.  Elliptic  Functions.  14.   Thermodynamics,    Radiation, 

9.  Differential  Equations.  Dynamical  Theory  of  Gases. 

The  first  Examination   under  the  above  Regulations 
will  be  held  in  Trinity  Term,  1924. 


Explanatory  Note 

The  Honour  School,  with  Math  Mods,  offers  three 
years  of  specialized  work  in  Mathematics,  with  some 
Mechanics  and  Physics.  The  work  is  substantially 
equivalent  to  the  advanced  undergraduate  and  early 
graduate  courses  at  an  American  university;  and  w'ill 
ordinarily  entitle  the  successful  student  to  from  one  to 
two  years'  credit  towards  an  American  Ph.D.  in  this 
subject.  The  American  student  going  to  Oxford  to 
study  Mathematics  with  only  the  work  for  an  American 
Bachelor's  degree  to  his  credit  will  do  well  to  begin  his 
Oxford  study  with  Math  Mods.  Even  the  holder  of  an 
American  Master's  degree  will  ordinarily  be  well  advised 
to  work  first  for  the  Final  Honour  Examination.  More 
advanced  American  students  may  be  qualified  to  under- 
take at  once  research  work  with  a  view  to  the  advanced 
degree  of  B.Sc.  or  D.Phil. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     77 

3.   Honour  School  of  Natural  Science 
Requirements 

In  the  Honour  School  of  Natural  Science  falls  most  of 
the  undergraduate  work  offered  by  the  University  in 
Physics,  Chemistry,  Animal  Physiology,  Zoology,  Bot- 
any, Geology,  Astronomy,  and  Engineering  Science;  and 
also  in  Crystallography,  Mineralogy,  and  Anthropology. 

In  preparation  for  the  Final  Examination  in  this 
School,  the  majority  of  undergraduates  read  first  for 
the  Preliminary  Examination  in  Natural  Science,  in 
preference  to  other  forms  of  the  Intermediate  Examina- 
tion (see  page  59  et  seq.).  Senior  Students,  being  exempt 
from  the  Intermediate  Examination,  may  begin  reading 
for  the  Final  Examination  immediately  on  coming  into 
residence. 

The  Preliminary  Examination  includes  examinations 
in  the  following  subjects:  Mathematics;  Mechanics  and 
Physics;  Chemistry;  Biology  (Zoology  and  Botany); 
.Physics  and  Chemistry.  Candidates  are  required  to 
offer  two  of  these  subjects  or  pairs  of  subjects;  selected 
according  to  the  detailed  requirements  explained  in  the 
Examination  Statutes.  The  requirements  of  the  Pre- 
liminary Examination  in  these  various  subjects  cannot  be 
well  summarized ;  reference  should  be  made  to  the  current 
volume  of  Examination  Statutes. 

For  the  Final  Examination  each  candidate  must  offer 
one  of  the  following  subjects  (each  of  which  is,  practically 
speaking,  an  Honour  School  in  itself) :  Physics,  Chem- 
istry, Animal  Physiology,  Zoology,  Botany,  Geology, 
Astronomy,    and    Engineering   Science.     He    may   also 


78  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

offer  any  one  or  more  of  the  following  supplemental  sub- 
jects: Crystallography,  Mineralogy,  arud  Anthropology. 
The  Final  Examination  in  each  subject  is  written  and 
practical.  There  is  no  oral  except  for  Chemistry,  Part 
II.  The  subjects  of  examination  in  the  several  "Schools" 
included  in  the  Final  School  are  as  follows: 

1.  In  Physics: 

Properties  of  Matter,  Sound,  Heat,  Light,  Electricity  and 
Magnetism,  Conduction  of  Electricity  through  Gases 
and  Radio-activity. 

2.  In  Chemistry: 

The  Examination  in  Chemistry  consists  of  two  parts. 
Part  I  includes  the  following  prescribed  subjects: 

Inorganic  Chemistry. 

Organic  Chemistry. 

General  and  Physical  Chemistry. 
Part  II  consists  of  records  of  experimental  investigations 

carried  out  under  professorial  supervision. 
Candidates  are  also  permitted  to  offer  a  special  subject 

connected  with  Chemistry,  subject  to  the  approval  of 

the  Board  of  the  Faculty. 

3.  In  Animal  Physiology: 

Physiology  of  man  and  the  higher  mammals,  with  a  detailed 
knowledge  of  the  structure  of  animal  cells,  tissues  and 
organs,  and  a  knowledge  of  human  anatomy,  and  embry- 
ology, and  of  the  physiology  of  other  types  of  animals. 

4.  In  Zoology: 

Comparative  Anatomy,  Embryology  and  Cytology;  the 
Distribution  of  animals  in  space  and  time;  Animal  Evo- 
lution, including  the  study  of  the  adaptation  of  animals 
to  their  surroundings,  and  the  phenomena  of  Variation, 
Heredity,  and  Sex;  the  system  of  classification  of  ani- 
mals into  classes  and  orders. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS  79 

Candidates  may  offer  a  Special  Subject,  with  the  approval 
of  the  Professor  of  Zoology. 

5.  In  Botany: 

General  Morphology-  and  Histology;  Special  Morphology; 

Taxonomy  and  Distribution;    Physiology. 
Candidates  may  offer  a  Special  Subject,  if  approved  by  the 

Board  of  the  Faculty. 

6.  In  Geology: 

Geology',  including  the  science  of  the  Earth,  exclusive  of 
its  living  inhabitants,  and  including  its  morphology, 
physiology,  distribution,  and  aetiology. 

Palaeontology. 

7.  In  Astronomy: 

Mathematical  Theories;  Instruments  and  Observations; 
the  Heavenly  Bodies;    General  History  of  Astronomy. 

8.  In  Engineering  Science: 

Mathematics,  Physics,  Applied  Mechanics,  Strength  of 
Materials,  Surveying,  Applied  Chemistry,  Structural 
Design,  Heat  and  Heat  Engines,  Electrical  Engineering. 
Every  candidate  is  required  to  show  a  special  knowledge 
of  one  of  the  last  three  of  these  subjects;  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  other  eight  subjects. 

Candidates  may  offer  as  a  special  subject  either  Engineering 
Chemistry  and  Metallurgy,  or  Geology. 

9.  In  Crystallography: 

Geometrical,  Physical  and  Chemical  Cr>'stallography. 

10.    In  Mineralogy: 

The  principles  of  Cr>'stallography  as  applied  to  minerals, 
and  a  detailed  knowledge  of  the  species  included  in  a 
prescribed  list;  also  Practical  Mineralogy. 


8o  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

II.    In  Anthropology': 

Comparative  Anatomy  of  Races;  Anthropometry;  Crani- 
ometry; Morphology  of  the  members  of  the  group 
Anthropomorpha  other  than  Man;  Physical  classifica- 
tions of  Races;  Prehistoric  Archaeology;  Rudiments  of 
Comparative  Philology;    Development  of  Culture. 

Explanatory  Note 

Although  Oxford  has  not  won  its  fame  in  Natural 
Science,  it  would  be  quite  wrong  to  conclude  that  the 
University  is  without  adequate  facilities  in  this  great 
department.  The  contrary  is  the  case.  Although  no 
effort  has  been  made  to  create  a  School  which  may 
attract  great  numbers  of  Science  students,  still  a  thor- 
oughly sound  and  well-equipped  School  has  been  devel- 
oped, adequate  for  present  numbers,  and  headed  by 
men  of  high  standing  in  the  scientific  world. 

The  American  student  will  note  at  once  that  the  degree 
given  in  this  School  is  the  B.A.,  although  the  work  is 
exclusively  Science  rather  than  Arts.  The  B.Sc.  degree 
(as  is  explained  fully  in  Chapter  VI)  is  purely  a  post- 
graduate degree  for  research  students  in  Science.  In 
this  School,  as  in  others,  the  degree  of  specialization 
afforded  the  student  is  such  as  to  make  it  advisable  for 
American  students  who  come  to  Oxford  holding  only  an 
American  bachelor's  degree  to  do  first  the  work  of  the 
School  and  take  the  Oxford  B.A.  They  will  find  no  time 
wasted  in  repetition.  And  if  they  are  in  position  to 
take  the  Final  Examination  and  B.A.  degree  at  the  end 
of  a  second  year,  the  third  year  can  well  be  applied  to 
research  for  the  B.Sc.  There  is  no  reason  why  both 
degrees  cannot  be  taken  by  the  ambitious  student  in 
three  years. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     8i 

For  students  who  have  begun  graduate  work  in 
America  or  elsewhere,  the  new  research  degree  of  D.Phil., 
as  well  as  the  B.Sc,  is  now  open. 

Aledicine 

In  connection  with  the  School  of  Natural  Science,  and 
for  the  particular  benefit  of  American  students,  a  few 
words  of  explanation  are  needed  in  regard  to  the  work 
which  can  be  done  at  Oxford  in  Medicine.  At  first  glance, 
the  American  medical  student  may  be  dismayed — be- 
cause he  wnll  have  discovered  that  Oxford's  first  purely 
medical  degree,  the  B.M.,  can  be  obtained  only  after  the 
Oxford  B.A.  has  been  taken  (which  itself  requires  two  or 
three  years),  and  then  only  after  two  or  three  years  in 
clinical  work.  The  B.M.  is  absolutely  out  of  the  question 
for  the  American  who  is  to  spend  but  three  years  in 
Oxford. 

Even  so  there  is  open  to  the  medical  student  at  Oxford 
valuable  work  along  sevei:al  essential  lines,  depending  as 
to  nature  upon  his  stage  of  advancement.  And  while  the 
total  length  of  his  medical  course,  at  home  and  abroad, 
will  probably  have  been  extended  by  a  year,  the  student 
will  have  gained  immeasurably  more  than  a  year's  growth 
by  coming  to  Oxford;  what  might  seem  a  sacrifice  of 
time  will  prove  a  gain  in  experience. 

Under  the  inspiring  leadership  of  the  late  Sir  William 
Osier  medical  work  at  Oxford  has  advanced  rapidly  to  a 
high  standard.  The  excellent  experimental  and  instruc- 
tional work  in  physiology  under  Professor  Sherrington 
has  not  been  duplicated  as  yet  in  any  other  school. 
Instruction  in  anatomy,  bacteriology,  and  pathology  is 
equal  to  that  offered  anywhere.     And  the  pre-medical 


82  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

courses   in   physics,    biology,    and   chemistry,    compare 
favorably  with  those  of  the  best  American  schools. 

In  addition  to  the  work  at  Oxford,  many  valuable 
opportunities  are  open  to  the  student  during  the  vaca- 
tions to  study  and  visit  hospitals  and  clinics  in  London, 
Edinburgh,  Dublin,  and  on  the  Continent. 

The  best  plan  for  the  American  medical  student  who 
will  have  three  years  at  Oxford  is  to  work  for  some  one  or 
more  of  the  degrees  which  are  open  to  him:  the  B.A.  (in 
the  School  of  Natural  Science) ;  the  B.Sc. ;  or  the  D.Phil., 
in  exceptional  cases.  In  securing  a  degree  he  will  have 
had  the  incentive  of  a  definite  objective  and  will  carry 
home  recognized  evidence  of  work  accomplished. 

The  following  possible  courses  are  open  to  the  student, 
var>'ing  with  his  progress  in  his  pre-Oxford  studies: 

I.  The  student  who  is  just  beginning  his  scientific 
work  may  take  the  B.A.  degree  in  chemistry  or  zoology, 
complete  all  the  requirements  in  the  fundamental  Sci- 
ences, and  return  to  America  for  his  three  or  four  years 
of  strictly  medical  work.  This  of  course  is  the  very  low- 
est accomplishment;  and  American  students  who  have 
already  received  a  degree  at  home  will  ordinarily  do 
much  more. 

2.  The  student  who  has  completed  some  of  his  pre- 
medical  work,  but  who  may  not  be  able  to  obtain  Senior 
Standing,  should  work  for  the  B.A.  degree  in  physiology. 
This  course  will  include  the  work  of  the  first  one  and  one- 
half  to  two  years  in  American  medical  schools,  and  the 
student  ought  to  be  able  to  graduate  from  such  a  school 
in  two  years  after  his  return. 

3.  The  student  who  receives  Senior  Standing,  and  who 
has  completed  in  America  the   minimum   pre-medical 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS      83 

requirements  in  biology,  physics,  and  chemistry,  may 
immediately  begin  work  on  the  courses  in  histology, 
physiological  chemistry,  and  physiology,  taking  the 
B.A.  in  physiology  in  two  years.  At  the  same  time  he 
should  begin  his  dissections  of  the  human  body,  which 
may  be  completed  in  twelve  to  eighteen  months.  His 
third  year  may  be  spent  (a)  in  special  research  work  in 
bacteriology  and  pathology,  or  in  physiology,  or  in 
pharmacology,  and  if  sufficiently  industrious  he  may 
secure  the  degree  of  B.Sc. ;  or  (b)  in  regular  classes  in 
these  subjects  supplemented  by  clinical  work  at  the  Rad- 
cliffe  Infirmary  and  County  Hospital.  Such  a  course  will 
admit  the  student  to  the  third  year  class  at  Johns  Hop- 
kins Medical  School  certainly,  and  in  some  instances  and 
in  certain  schools  to  the  fourth  year  class. 

4.  For  the  student  who  has  acquired  sufficient  pre- 
liminary training,  or  already  completed  some  medical 
work  in  America,  there  is  the  possibility  of  entering  at 
once  upon  extensive  and  ambitious  research  work  leading 
to  the  degrees  of  B.Sc.  or  D.Phil,  or  both.^ 

4.  Honour  School  of  Jurisprudence 
Requirements 
In  preparation  for  the  Final  Examination  In  the 
Honour  School  of  Jurisprudence,  the  majority  of  under- 
graduates read  for  the  Preliminary  Examination  in  that 
subject,  in  preference  to  other  forms  of  the  Intermediate 
Examination  (see  page  59,  et  seq.).  Senior  Students, 
being  exempt  from  the  Intermediate  Examination,  may 
begin  reading  for  the  Final  Examination  Immediately  on 
coming  Into  residence. 

1  A  Dean  of  the  Medical  School  has  recently  been  appointed  who  will 
advise  intending  students. 


84  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  Preliminary  Examination  includes: 

1.  The  text  of  the  Institutes  of  Justinian. 

2.  Outlines  of  English  Constitutional  History. 

3.  Barthelemy,  Le  Gouvernement  de  la  France. 

4.  Unprepared    translation    from    Latin    and    French    prose 

authors. 

The  Final  Honour  Examination  includes: 

1.  General  Jurisprudence  and  the  Theon,-  of  Legislation. 

2.  Roman  Law,  including: 

(c)  The  outlines  of  Roman  Law  till  the  death  of  Justin- 
ian studied  historically  in  connexion  with  the  text  of 
the  Institutes  of  Gaius. 

(6)  Digest  XVIII.  I,  de  Contrahenda  Emptione  (optional, 
but  candidates  who  do  not  offer  it  cannot  be  placed 
in  the  first  class). 

3.  English  Law,  including 

(a)  Real  Property. 

Q})   Contracts. 

(c)  Torts. 

{d)  Constitutional  Law  and  Legal  History. 

4.  International  Law. 

5.  Roman-Dutch  Law  (optional ;  may  be  offered  as  an  alterna- 

tive to  Real  Property). 

Explanatory  Note 

The  Preliminary  Examination  in  the  School  of  Juris- 
prudence ("Law  Prelim"  as  it  is  more  simply  and  gener- 
ally known)  need?  no  discussion.  Students  who  receive 
Senior  Standing  are  not  required  to  take  it;  by  others  it 
is  usually  passed  within  one  or  two  terms. 

The  Final  Honour  Examination  is  the  immediate  ob- 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     85 

jective  of  by  far  the  majority  of  undergraduates  reading 
law  at  Oxford;  and  is  usually  taken  at  the  end  of  the 
third  year  from  matriculation,  or  even  at  the  end  of  the 
second  year  by  Junior  or  Senior  Students.  While  less 
technical  and  less  severe  than  the  examination  for  the 
B.C.L.  degree  (and  therefore  perhaps  slightly  less 
immediately  practical  for  the  student  who  intends  to 
practise  after  leaving  the  University),  the  Final  Honour 
Examination  requires  of  the  successful  candidate  a  firm 
grasp  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  chief  branches 
of  two  great  legal  systems — the  English  and  the  Roman. ^ 
The  Final  Honour  School  does  not  aim  to  be  and  is  not  a 
professional  law  school,  designed  to  thrust  out  into  the 
world  sharp  young  lawyers  who  will  know  by  heart  the 
proper  form  of  a  bill  of  complaint.  At  Oxford,  Juris- 
prudence is  one  of  the  several  undergraduate  schools; 
it  is  studied  and  taught  as  one  of  the  great  branches  of 
human  knowledge.  The  spirit  of  this  school  is  scientific, 
or  academic,  if  you  will,  rather  than  professional.  The 
examiners  who  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  candidates  gen- 
erally value  a  mastery  of  principles,  with  an  ability  to 
express  and  criticize,  higher  than  a  retentive  memory 
for  local  rules  or  casual  decisions. 

The  Oxford  law  student  will  not  find  himself  nurtured 
in  the  "case  system"  which  has  attained  such  a  reputation 
in  America.  The  method  of  study  is  that  loose  combina- 
tion of  private  reading,  tutorial  conference,  essay,  and 
more  or  less  optional  lecture  which  is  characteristic  of 
Oxford.  Nevertheless  the  opinion  may  be  ventured  that 
the  difference  in  method  does  not  work  to  the  disad- 

» For  the  Roman  Law  part  of  the  Final  Examination,  the  student 
must  be  able  to  read  the  Institutes  of  Gaius  and  of  Justinian  in  Latin. 


86  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

vantage  of  the  Oxford  student.  At  any  rate,  such  is  the 
view  often  expressed  by  students  who  have  tried  both. 
It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  Oxford  student  is  in  an 
environment  much  more  calculated  to  encourage  his  indi- 
viduality and  in  a  school  in  which  the  law  is  regarded 
from  a  more  scientific,  historical  and  objective  point  of 
view,  than  is  his  fellow  in  America. 

In  addition  to  acquiring  a  training  not  unsuited  for 
practice  in  America,  the  Oxford  law  student  has  the 
opportunity  of  qualifying  for  admission  to  the  English 
Bar.  The  requirements  for  admission  to  the  Bar  include 
the  keeping  of  twelve  terms  (three  academic  years)  at 
one  of  the  Inns  of  Court  in  London,  the  passing  of  the  Bar 
Examination,  and  the  payment  of  certain  fees.  As 
"keeping  a  term"  at  an  Inn  of  Court  merely  means  eating 
dinner  at  the  Inn  on  three  days  during  term,  an  Oxford 
undergraduate  can  easily  keep  his  Inn  terms  during  his 
residence  at  the  University.  And  the  Bar  Examination 
offers  little  difficulty  to  one  prepared  to  take  the  Oxford 
B.A.  in  Jurisprudence. 

5.  Honour  School  of  Modern  History 

Requirements 

In  preparation  for  the  Final  Examination  in  the  Hon- 
our School  of  Modern  History,  the  majority  of  under- 
graduates read  first  for  the  Preliminary  Examination 
in  this  subject,  in  preference  to  other  forms  of  the  Inter- 
mediate Examination  (see  page  59,  et  seq.).  Senior 
Students,  being  exempt  from  the  Intermediate  Examina- 
tion, may  begin  reading  for  the  Final  Examination  im- 
mediately on  coming  into  residence. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS  87 

The  Preliminary  Examination,  as  its  name  implies,  is 
a  preliminary  test;  it  is  usually  passed  without  difficulty 
within  two  or  three  terms  from  matriculation,  or  even 
after  one  term,  if  the  student  is  already  more  or  less 
familiar  with  its  subjects.  This  examination  includes 
papers  in  the  following: 

1.  Outlines  of  European  History  from  800  A.D.  to  1494 A. D., 

or  from  1494  A.D.  to  1789  A.D. 

2.  Original  Prescribed  Texts  in  Latin,  Greek  or  French. 

3.  Unprepared    Translation    from    Latin,    Greek,    French, 

German  and  Italian;  every  candidate  must  satisfy  the 
examiners  in  at  least  one  ancient  and  one  modern 
language  of  this  group. 

4.  Elements  of  Economic  Theory. 

The  Final  Examination  embraces  papers  in  the  follow- 
ing subjects: 

1.  The  History  of  England,  both  constitutional  and  political. 

2.  A  Period  of  General  History,  to  be  selected  by  the  candi- 

date from  a  prescribed  list  of  some  eight  periods  begin- 
ning with  285  A.D.  and  covering  from  one  to  three 
centuries  each. 

3.  Political  Science,  and  Economic  History  with  Economic 

Theory-;  but  candidates  who  do  not  aim  at  a  first  or 
second  class  may  omit  either  one  of  these  subjects. 

4.  Unprepared  Translation  from  French,   German,   Italian 

and  Spanish;  (optional).  Candidates  may  offer  one  or 
more  of  these  languages  and  credit  will  be  given  for 
accurate  translation. 

5.  A  Special  Historical  Subject,  selected  by  the  candidate 

from  a  prescribed  list,  and  studied  with  reference  to  the 


88  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

original  authorities;    the  Special  Subject  is  required 
only  of  candidates  who  aim  at  a  first  or  second  class. 

6.  In  addition,  eveiy  candidate  is  required  to  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  Constitutional  Law,  and  of  Political  and  De- 
scriptive Geography,  although  no  separate  paper  is  set 
in  these  subjects. 

Candidates  are  allowed  to  offer  a  thesis  on  some  question 
either  in  English  Histor>'  or  in  the  Special  Historical 
Subject  offered  in  the  Examination;  the  thesis  being  in 
addition  to,  and  not  excusing  the  candidate  from,  the 
subjects  of  the  Examination. 

Explanatory  Note 

The  Honour  School  of  Modern  History  commends  it- 
self especially  to  three  types  of  students:  To  the 
specialists  in  history,  political  science  or  government; 
to  those  who  desire  what  is  perhaps  the  best  general  edu- 
cation, outside  the  classical  school,  which  Oxford  affords; 
to  those  who  intend  later  to  study  law,  or  some  political 
subject.  Of  all  candidates,  the  History  School  requires 
eventually  a  thorough  knowledge  of  English  history 
(political,  constitutional  and  economic),  and  of  one  period 
of  general  European  history.  All  are  required  also  to  have 
an  elementary  knowledge  of  political  science,  studied  with 
reference  to  a  few  texts,  and  a  knowledge  of  the  elements 
of  political  economy.  All  who  hope  to  secure  a  first  or 
second  class  must  offer  in  addition  a  Special  Subject. 

Normally  the  work  required  is  covered  in  from  two  to 
three  years.  Of  this  time  little  need  usually  be  devoted 
to  the  language,  one  term  sufifices  for  political  science, 
and  the  remainder  is  about  equally  divided  between  the 
other  subjects.     Thus  that  part  of  the  work  which  is 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     89 

subject  to  the  option  of  the  student  is  most  emphasized; 
and  the  student  is  permitted  to  lay  stress  upon  that 
field  or  aspect  which  interests  him  most,  provided  he 
is  able  to  satisfy  a  minimum  requirement  in  the  other 
prescribed  subjects.  The  examiners  scarcely  expect  an 
equally  good  knowledge  of  all  subjects,  even  from 
the  best  students;  but  act  generally  upon  the  principle 
of  giving  a  candidate  credit  for  what  he  knows,  rather 
than  that  of  trying  to  ascertain  of  what  he  may  be 
ignorant. 

There  is  a  wide  choice  of  periods  of  general  history, 
of  which  the  latest — from  1789  to  1878 — is  at  present  the 
most  popular.  The  special  subjects  are  of  two  general 
sorts:  the  purely  historical  (as  The  Age  of  Dante  or  Rich- 
ard II),  and  the  political  (as  International  Relations, 
Representative  Government,  or  Banking  and  Currency). 

During  the  years  devoted  to  the  History  School,  the 
student  learns  to  pick  his  way  through  big  books  and 
little  books,  articles  and  lectures,  gossip  with  felloW  stu- 
dents and  converse  with  specialists, — grasping  the  truth 
where  he  may  find  it  and  developing  a  sense  of  proportion 
and  of  selection.  He  is  guided  throughout  by  his  tutor, 
in  every  case  a  competent  man  and  often  a  distinguished 
specialist. 

6.   Honour  School  of  Theology 

Requirements 

The  degree  of  B.A.  in  Theology  is  open  to  all  students 
without  distinction  as  to  creed.  The  degree  of  B.D.,  also 
offered  by  the  University,  is  an  advanced  or  post-gradu- 
ate degree,  and  is  discussed  on  page  113. 


90  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  subjects  of  the  Final  Examination  are  as  follows:^ 

1.  The  Holy  Scriptures,  including  the  History,  Religion  and 

Literature  of  Israel  from  Moses  to  Christ,  and  the 
History,  Theology  and  Literature  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  studied  in 
the  Greek  Text. 

2.  Dogmatic  and  Symbolic  Theology. 

3.  Ecclesiastical  History  and  the  Fathers. 

4.  The  Hebrew  of  the  Old  Testament. 

5.  The  Philosophy  of  Religion. 

Of  the  foregoing  five  subjects  all  candidates  are  required 
to  offer  I,  together  with  either  2  or  3.  All  candidates 
who  offer  more  than  two  of  these  five  subjects  will  be 
required  to  offer  2. 

6.  Liturgies. 

7.  Sacred  Criticism  and  the  Archaeology  of  the  Old  and  New 

Testaments. 

8.  English  Ecclesiastical  History  to   1820,  together  with  a 

■  prescribed  special  period  to  be  read  with  original  au- 
thorities. 

These  last  three  subjects  may  be  offered  only  by  candi- 
dates who  offer  three  out  of  the  first  five  subjects. 

Any  candidate  who  offers  three  of  the  first  five  subjects 
may  offer  in  addition  to  or  instead  of  any  other  of  the 
above  list  of  subjects  a  Special  Subject  selected  from  a 
prescribed  list.  A  Special  Subject  is  not  necessary  for  the 
attainment  of  the  highest  Honours;  but  great  weight 
will  be  attached  to  excellence  in  a  Special  Subject. 

1  The  regulations  for  the  Honour  School  of  Theology  are  about  to  be 
altered.  Reference  should  be  made  to  the  latest  edition  of  the  Examina- 
tion Statutes.  Under  the  new  Regulations  every  candidate  will  be  re- 
quired to  offer,  as  a  minimum,  Subject  i,  and  two  of  the  Subjects  2, 3,  4,  5. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     91 

Explanatory  Note 

The  Honour  School  of  Theology  of  Oxford  consists 
primarily  of  a  very  thorough  study  of  historical  Chris- 
tianity. Beginning  with  the  nomadic  Hebrew  tribes  it 
traces  the  rise  of  national  consciousness,  the  formation 
of  the  kingdom,  the  vicissitudes  of  the  nation's  history 
ending  in  the  destruction  of  the  small  power  by  the  ex- 
panding Babylonian  Empire.  It  follows  the  experiences 
of  the  Jews  during  their  centuries  of  dependence,  their 
dreams  of  liberation,  their  high  hopes  when  Alexander 
overthrew  their  ancient  enemies  and  made  all  western 
Asia  Greek,  their  bitter  disappointment  during  the  sub- 
sequent years  when  Seleucids  and  Ptolemies  battled 
throughout  Palestine  for  the  possession  of  the  country, 
the  fierce  Maccabean  revolts,  and  the  coming  of  the 
Romans.  It  follows  throughout  this  study  the  develop- 
ment of  religious  ideals  from  the  earliest  animism  of  the 
Semites  to  the  idealism  of  the  Prophets,  the  influence  of 
the  more  powerful  civilizations  with  which  they  then 
came  into  contact,  and  the  amalgamation  of  their  reli- 
gious beliefs  with  their  national  aspirations.  With  this 
as  a  background  it  requires  a  study  of  the  life  of  Christ, 
and  a  critical  examination  of  our  several  sources  of 
information,  in  the  effort  to  find  out  and  understand  the 
incidents  of  that  life,  His  relation  to  the  Jewish  leaders, 
to  those  who  accepted  Him  as  the  expected  Messiah,  and 
to  the  Roman  authorities,  and  finally  the  story  of  His 
death  and  resurrection.  It  traces  the  rise  of  the  Christian 
Church,  the  work  of  the  Apostles,  the  origin  of  its  insti- 
tutions and  the  development  of  its  doctrine.  The  course 
ends  with  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  in  451  when  polity 


92  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

and  doctrine  had  been  developed  to  the  form  which  they 
maintained  for  centuries. 

This  is  the  heart  of  the  School.  Hebrew,  Church  His- 
tory, Philosophy  of  Religion  and  any  approved  Special 
Subject  may  also  be  offered. 

The  special  fitness  of  Oxford  for  this  sort  of  training 
ought  to  be  recognized.  Theology  has  always  been  one 
of  her  most  important  Schools.  Apart  from  advantages 
of  prestige  and  influence,  this  means  that  every  college 
has  its  Theology  tutor.  Furthermore,  the  two  most 
important  divisions  of  Theology  are  the  two  fields  to 
which  Oxford  has  always  given  most  attention.  Chris- 
tianity comes  to  us  from  the  Greek  and  Roman  world; 
from  the  classical  field  in  which  Oxford  holds  a  leading 
place.  On  the  other  hand,  its  creed  carries  one  into  the 
ultimate  problems  of  philosophy;  here  again  is  Oxford's 
strength.  Finally,  the  tutorial  system  is  a  most  valuable 
method  of  instruction  for  the  young  theological  student 
in  the  process  of  thinking  out  and  developing  his  beliefs. 

In  addition  to  the  University  School  of  Theology,  men- 
tion should  be  made  of  Mansfield  College  (Congrega- 
tionalist),  and  Manchester  College  (undenominational), 
— both  institutions  for  theological  students  and  affiliated 
with  the  University. 

7.  Honour  School  of  Oriental  Studies 

In  the  Honour  School  of  Oriental  Studies  are  grouped 
the  examinations  in  Sanskrit,  Arabic,  Hebrew,  Persian 
and  Egyptian,  leading  to  the  degree  of  B.A.  The  candi- 
date enrolled  in  this  School  must  offer  one  of  these  five 
subjects.      The   examination   in   each   subject   includes 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     93 

prescribed  texts,  the  history  of  the  literature  and  of  the 
civilization  or  principal  countries  concerned,  other  closely 
affiliated  languages,  and  a  special  subject.  The  details 
as  to  each  subject  do  not  admit  of  adequate  summariza- 
tion; students  interested  in  this  School  should  refer 
directly  to  the  Examination  Statutes  published  by  the 
University. 

8.   Honour  School  of  English  Language 
AND  Literature 

Requirejnents 

The  Final  Examination  in  the  Honour  School  of 
English  Language  and  Literature  includes  papers  in  the 
following  subjects,  of  which  candidates  are  expected  to 
offer  nine: 

1.  Gothic  and  Germanic  Philology. 

2.  Old  English  Philology. 

3.  Middle  English  Philology. 

4.  The  History'  of  the  English  Language,  with  special  refer- 

ence to  the  period  since  Chaucer. 

5.  (a)  Old  English  texts. 
(b)  Old  English. 

6.  (a)  Middle  English  texts. 
(b)    Middle  English. 

7.  Outlines  of  the  History  of  the  English  Language,  espe- 

cially as  exhibited  in  English  Literature. 

8.  Shakespeare  and  Milton. 

9.  Old  and  Middle  English  Literature. 
ID.    Chaucer  and  his  contemporaries. 

11.  The  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

12.  The  age  of  Shakespeare. 

13.  The  seventeenth  century. 


94  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

14.  The  eighteenth  century. 

15.  The  nineteenth  centurj'. 
Candidates  may  offer 

Either  (i)  Papers  1-4,  5  (a),  6  (a),  8,  and  any  two  of  Papers 

9-15- 
Or        (2)  Papers  5  (b),  6  {b),  7,  8,  10,  12,  and  any  three  of 

Papers  1 1,  13,  14,  15. 
Or        (3)  Papers  4,  5  (a),  6  (a),  8,  and  any  two  of  Papers  1-3, 
and  any  three  of  Papers  9-15. 

In  Papers  10-15,  candidates  will  be  expected  to  show  such 
knowledge  of  the  history,  especially  the  Social  History,  of 
England,  as  is  necessary'  for  the  profitable  study  of  the  authors 
and  periods  they  offer. 

Candidates  may  also  offer  a  Special  Subject,  selected  from 
a  prescribed  list  or  a  dissertation  on  some  subject  in  English 
Language  or  Literature  approved  by  the  Board  of  the  Faculty 
of  Mediaeval  and  Modern  Languages  and  Literature.  Neither 
Special  Subject  nor  Dissertation  is  necessary  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  highest  Honours. 

Explanatory  Note 

The  study  of  English  at  Oxford  is  remarkable  for  its 
breadth.  The  Honours  course  embraces  a  wide  range 
from  philology  and  linguistic  study  at  one  extreme,  to 
historical  and  literary  study  at  the  other.  The  student 
who  reads  this  School  acquires  not  a  training  in  some 
narrow  aspect  of  the  general  subject,  but  rather  a  general 
introduction  to  whatever  there  is  that  is  lasting  in  the 
literary  accomplishment  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

For  such  study,  Oxford,  with  its  precious  store  of  tradi- 
tion and  memories,  is  in  itself  an  inspiration  and  a 
challenge.     No  man,  least  of  all  an  American,  can  go 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     95 

there  without  feeling  the  longing  to  learn  something  of 
the  precious  things  of  which  Oxford  is  the  guardian,  so 
many  of  which  are  our  heritage,  no  less  than  England's. 
The  study  of  English  is  concerned  with  what  is  perhaps 
the  most  important  part  of  this  heritage.  It  involves  the 
study  of  the  whole  field  of  English  Literature,  with  its 
living  records  of  what  men  have  done  and  thought  and 
dreamed.  At  Oxford  one  has  leisure  for  such  reading, 
and  something  that  is  yet  more  rare,  the  personal 
guidance  in  it  that  is  offered  by  the  tutorial  system. 

For  the  advanced  student,  who  has  begun  to  specialize 
in  English  at  an  American  university,  there  are  special 
advantages:  The  Bodleian  Library  with  its  many  won- 
derful treasures  is  available  to  him.  There  is  also  the 
Clarendon  Press,  with  all  the  attendant  industry  of 
scholarly  book-making  and  printing.  Further,  the  home 
of  the  New  English  Dictionary  is  at  Oxford.  All  these 
draw  together  a  growing  body  of  scholars  interested  in 
English;  and  their  number  is  increased  by  the  presence 
of  men  like  Gilbert  Murray  and  C.  H.  Firth,  whose  inter- 
ests run  over  from  their  special  fields  of  classics  and  his- 
tory into  English;  of  men  of  letters  like  Robert  Bridges 
and  John  Masefield,  who  live  near  Oxford  and  take  some 
part  in  the  life  of  the  university;  and  of  other  contem- 
porary writers  like  Shaw  and  Chesterton,  who  come  occa- 
sionally to  Oxford  as  lecturers.  These  things  all  go  to 
create  an  atmosphere  which  makes  the  student  think  of 
English  as  a  living  thing,  real  and  broad  as  life  itself. 

For  an  American  who  elects  English  as  an  undergradu- 
ate in  the  university,  the  wisest  course  is  to  read  for  the 
Honour  School,  leading  to  the  B.A.  degree.  Normally 
this  can  be  completed  in  two  years.     In  this  work  the 


96  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

student  receives  the  full  benefit  of  the  Oxford  system, 
with  its  combination  of  individual  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  student  and  expert  guidance  and  criticism  by  the 
tutor.  Even  for  the  student  who  comes  to  Oxford  for 
advanced  work,  there  is  little  danger  of  repeating  in  this 
School  anything  which  he  has  really  mastered ;  the  tutor 
will  take  account  of  his  previous  accomplishment,  and 
the  range  of  subjects  in  the  Final  Examination  is  so 
broad  as  to  ensure  a  profitable  extension  of  his  studies. 
Once  the  Final  School  has  been  completed,  the  advanced 
student  may  have  time  enough  left  to  qualify  for  the 
B.Litt.  at  the  end  of  his  third  year;  and  the  training  and 
experience  of  the  two  previous  years  will  probably  have 
saved  him  much  of  the  wasted  time  and  effort  which 
accompany  unguided  research.  Working  for  the  D.Phil, 
can  be  recommended  only  to  students  who  have  taken  the 
B.Litt.  or  who  have  had  some  good  preliminary  graduate 
school  training. 


'&• 


9.   Honour  School  of  Modern  Languages 

Reqidremenls 

The  Honour  School  of  Modern  Languages  is  divided 
into  six  parts,  each  part  for  practical  purposes  constitut- 
ing a  School ;  as  follows:  French,  German,  Italian, Spanish, 
Russian,  and  Mediaeval  and  Modern  Greek.  No  candi- 
date for  the  degree  of  B.A.  in  this  School  is  required  to 
offer  more  than  one  language. 

Students  of  this  School  who  have  to  take  some  form 
of  Intermediate  Examination  commonly  select  for  this 
purpose  the  French  and  German  subjects  of  the  Final 
Pass  School  (Group  B  (2)  and  (5)  ). 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     97 

The  Final  Examination  in  each  language  embraces  the 
following  subjects: 

1.  The  language  as  spoken  and  written  at  the  present  day; 

each  candidate  is  required  to  show  a  competent 
knowledge  of  this,  and  special  recognition  is  given  for 
proficiency  in  the  colloquial  use  of  the  language. 

2.  Prescribed  works  or  portions   of   works   written    in    the 

language. 

3.  The  history  of  the  language. 

4.  The  history  of  its  literature. 

5.  The  history,  especially  the  social  history,  of  the  corre- 

sponding country  or  countries  of  Europe. 

6.  A  special  subject  of  language  or  literature,  selected  by  the 

student  from  prescribed  lists;  the  special  subject  may 
be  omitted  by  candidates  who  do  not  aim  at  a  place 
in  the  first  class. 

Explanatory  Note 

The  School  of  Modern  Languages  offers  both  practical 
and  cultural  attractions,  especially  to  American  students. 
A  degree  obtained  in  it  will  be  counted  as  equivalent  to 
two  years'  graduate  study  at  most  American  universities. 
The  work  required  involves  a  thorough  knowledge  of  at 
least  one  Continental  language;  and  affords  to  the  student 
an  aid  to  profitable  travel  and  study  of  customs  and 
conditions  in  the  corresponding  country  or  countries. 

Recent  events  have  naturally  made  French  the  most 
popular  language  in  the  School;  and  the  teaching  staff 
has  been  strengthened  by  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Gustave 
Rudler  to  the  newly  established  Marshal  Foch  Professor- 
ship of  French  Literature.  But  good  facilities  are  afforded 
also  in  German,  Italian,  Spanish,  Russian  and  Greek. 
The  work  for  the  degree  usually  requires  three  years. 


98  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  School  is  not  designed  for  beginners  in  the  study 
of  the  language  selected.  In  the  more  popular  languages 
of  the  School  the  more  important  lectures  and  all  the 
texts  are  in  the  language  studied ;  indeed  an  ordinary 
acquaintance  with  the  language  is  taken  for  granted. 
The  work  of  the  School  includes  the  study  of  philology 
and  the  history  of  the  language,  the  study  of  the  literature 
and  history  of  the  countries  concerned,  and  constant 
exercise  in  writing  and  speaking  the  language.  For  the 
special  subject  it  is  possible  to  choose  a  modern  language 
other  than  that  offered  for  the  other  parts  of  the  Final 
Examination. 

lo.   Honour   School   of   Philosophy    Politics    and 

Economics 

The  subject  of  the  recently  established  Honour  School 
of  Philosophy  Politics  and  Economics  is  the  study  of  the 
structure,  and  the  philosophical,  political,  and  economic 
principles,  of  modern  society. 

The  Final  Examination  in  this  School  includes: 

1.  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy. 

2.  British  Political  and  Constitutional  History  from  1760. 

3.  British  Social  and  Economic  History  from  1760. 

4.  The  History  of  Philosophy  from  Descartes. 

5.  Political  Economy. 

6.  Prescribed  books  in  any  two  of  the  following  subjects: 

(a)  Metaphysics  and  Moral  Philosophy. 

(b)  Political  Philosophy. 

(c)  Political  Economy. 

7.  A  further  subject  in  Philosophy  or  Politics  or  Political 

Economy. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS     99 

8.   Unprepared    Translation     from     French,     German,     and 
Italian  authors.    Every  Candidate  must  satisfy  the  Ex- 
aminers in  two  at  least  of  these  languages. 
Candidates  will   be  expected  to   show   such  knowledge  of 
the   contemporary'   history   of   Europe  and    America    as 
is  necessary  for  the  proper  study  of  subjects  (2)  and  (3) 
specified  above.    The  Examination  is  so  arranged  that 
Candidates  may  give  special  attention  either  to  Philoso- 
phy or  to  Politics  or  to  Political  Economy. 

B.   Pass  School 

Candidates  for  the  degree  of  B.A.  in  the  Pass  School 
must  offer  for  examination  three  subjects  selected  from 
the  following  groups: 

Group  A.     1.    Two  books,  either  both  Greek,  or  one  Greek  and 
(Classical)  one  Latin,  one  being  some  portion  of  a  Greek 

philosophical  work,  and  the  other  a  portion  of 

a  Greek  or  Latin  Historian. 

2.  The  whole  or  some  portions  of  Greek  and  Roman 

Histor)'. 

3.  The  Hebrew  Language. 

Group  B.    I.    Either    English    History,    or    general    European 
(Modern)  History. 

2.  The  French  Language. 

3.  Either  Political  Theory  and  Institutions,  or  Eco- 

nomic History  and  Theory. 

4.  A  branch  of  legal  study. 

5.  The  German  Language. 

6.  English  Literature. 

Group  C.     I.  Mathematics. 

(Science)     2.  The  elements  of  Physics. 

3.  The  elements  of  Chemistry'. 

4.  The  elements  of  Biology  (Zoology  and  Botany). 


loo  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Group  D.    The  elements  of  Religious  Knowledge,  including  spe- 
(Theology)      cified  portions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
one  of  the  Creeds,  with  a  portion  of  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles,   a  period  of  ecclesiastical   histor>', 
and  some  apologetic  treatise. 

Group  E.     Military  History-. 

One  subject  must  be  either  A(i)  or  A(3),  or  B(2)  or 
B(5);  and,  unless  B(2)  or  B(5)  be  one,  not  more  than 
two  subjects  may  be  taken  from  any  one  Group.  The 
examinations  in  the  three  subjects  may  be  passed  in 
separate  tenns.  The  work  in  the  Pass  School  is 
distinctly  below  the  standard  of  that  required  in  the 
Honour  Schools. 


C.   Agriculture  and  Forestry 

In  preparation  for  the  Final  Examination  in  the  School 
of  Agriculture  and  Forestry  (not  an  Honour  School) 
undergraduates  who  are  not  exempt  from  the  Inter- 
mediate Examination  (see  p.  59)  commonly  read  for  the 
Preliminary  Examination  connected  with  this  School. 

The  Preliminary  Examination  covers: 

T.   The  formation  and  properties  of  soil. 

2.  The  principles  of  cultivation. 

3.  Fundamental  economic  conceptions  connected  with  land, 

and  the  outlines  of  the  historical  development  of  Agri- 
culture in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  the  i8th  and 
19th  centuries. 

4.  The  elements  of  Physics,  Chemistry,  and  Biologj'  in  their 

bearings  on  Agriculture  and  Forestry. 

5.  Systematic  Botany. 


B.A.  DEGREE  AND  HONOUR  SCHOOLS  loi 

6.   A  portion  of  a  French  or   German   author,   and   unseen 

translations. 
Candidates  must  satisfy  the  examiners  in  Subjects  i  and  6, 
and  in  two  of  the  Subjects  2-5. 

The  Final  Examination  may  be  taken — 
Either  in  Agriculture,  including 

1.  The  principles  of  farm  management. 

2.  Estate  management. 

3.  Economics  of  Agriculture. 

4.  The  histor>'  of  the  development  of  Agriculture. 

Candidates  must  offer  the  first  and  two  other  subjects. 
Or  in  Forestry,  including 

I.    The  economics  of  Forestry  and  forest  policy. 

Silviculture. 

Forest  protection. 

Forest  utilization. 

Forest  mensuration. 

Forest  management. 

Forest  valuation  and  finance. 
Candidates  must  offer  all  seven  subjects. 


CHAPTER  VI 

COURSES   OF  STUDY:      ADVANCED   OR   POST- 
GRADUATE DEGREES 

By  L.  A.  Crosby,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Maine  and  Trinity,  'ij 

1.  The  M.A.  Degree. 

The  M.A.  degree  at  Oxford  represents  an  advance 
above  the  B.A.  degree  only  in  the  matter  of  standing. 
No  further  examinations  or  studies  are  required.  The 
degree  can  be  taken  only  by  a  holder  of  the  B.A.;  and 
by  him  not  earlier  than  the  2 1st  term  from  matriculation, 
and  provided  only  he  has  kept  his  name  upon  the  books 
of  his  college  during  that  entire  period  and  paid  certain 
college  and  University  dues  and  fees.  The  importance 
of  the  M.A.  degree  lies  in  the  fact  that  only  holders  of 
that  degree  (and  they  only  so  long  as  they  keep  their 
name  on  the  books  of  their  colleges)  are  members  of  the 
general  governing  assembly  of  the  University — Convoca- 
tion. 

2.  The  "Research"  Degrees — Letters,  Science,  and  Philos- 
ophy. 

Until  the  present  century  Oxford  had  been  frankly 
disinclined  to  encourage  that  form  of  post-graduate  study 
generally  identified  as  to  origin  with  German  universities 
and  commonly  described  as  "research".  The  established 
Oxonian  B.A.  system,  combining  undergraduate  status 
with  a  measure  of  specialization,  produced  an  ideal  of 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  103 

\ 


liberal  education,  culture,  and  sound  scholarship,  to 
which  the  narrowness  of  the  intense  specialization  and 
minute  labor  of  the  German  Ph.D.  was  repellent. 

But  some  years  ago  this  University  also  yielded  to  the 
supposed  demands  of  a  scientific  and  professional  age,  and 
took  steps  toward  the  creation  of  a  graduate  school,  in 
the  American  sense  of  the  term,  by  establishing  two 
"research"  degrees — that  of  Bachelor  of  Letters  and  that 
of  Bachelor  of  Science  (Science  being  taken  to  include 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Science). 

It  should  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  this  led  at 
Oxford  to  the  growth  of  a  large  and  zealous  body  of 
"researchers",  assembled  from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and 
working  in  permanently  organized  seminars  and  classes 
such  as  may  be  found  at  Harvard  or  Columbia.  On  the 
contrary,  there  was  no  hard  and  fast  line  where  techni- 
cally undergraduate  work  ended  and  strictly  graduate 
work  began.  There  was  and  is  comparatively  little 
organized  graduate  teaching  or  instruction,  but  rather 
(by  an  extension  of  the  tutorial  system)  direct  personal 
guidance  of  the  student  by  a  professor.  There  are  lec- 
tures and  a  few  small  groups  in  the  nature  of  seminars — 
but  these  are  informal  rather  than  permanent  organiza- 
tions. 

Oxford  has  never  espoused  method  as  method.  In 
graduate  work,  her  attitude  is  that  rich  fields  of  material 
are  available  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  the  Taylor  In- 
stitution, the  Museums,  etc.;  professors,  readers,  lec- 
turers and  tutors,  who  can  speak  with  authority,  who  are 
themselves  engaged  in  research,  are  ready  to  assist  and 
inspire  new  students  by  guidance  and  example;  and  the 
student    himself    (particularly    the    graduate     student) 


104  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

may  fairly  be  expected  to  contribute  the  necessary  initia- 
tive and  energy. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Oxford  in  establishing  its  first 
research  degrees  (and  in  accord  with  its  historical  prac- 
tice that  a  doctorate  in  any  subject  must  be  preceded  by 
a  baccalaureate  in  that  subject)  that  these  degrees  were 
given  a  baccalaureate  title.  This  is  far  from  implying — 
as  similar  titles  elsewhere  often  imply — that  the  work 
is  of  a  second-rate  or  undergraduate  standard.  On  the 
contrary,  the  work  for  both  degrees  is  post-graduate 
research  work  of  a  high  standard,  though  probably 
slightly  less  exhaustive  than  that  required  for  a  Ph.D. 
in  the  best  American  universities. 

The  B.Litt.  and  B.Sc.  are  open  to  all  Oxford  B.A. 
men  and  to  other  students  who  are  at  least  21  years  of 
age,  and  who  "can  give  satisfactory  evidence  of  having 
received  a  good  general  education"  and  of  being  well 
fitted  to  pursue  the  special  study  or  research  on  which 
they  propose  to  enter.  Rhodes  Scholars  or  other  foreign 
students  who  have  taken  a  bachelor's  degree  at  some 
American  or  foreign  university  of  good  reputation  will 
generally  be  able  to  secure  permission  to  work  for  these 
degrees.  The  credentials  to  be  presented  include:  A 
certificate  of  age;  a  certificate  of  degree  or  degrees  already 
taken,  accompanied  by  a  catalogue  or  register  of  the  uni- 
versity; a  detailed  statement  of  work  done  or  published 
as  a  result  of  special  studies;  a  statement  of  the  subject 
and  nature  of  the  proposed  course  of  special  study  or 
research;  and  evidence  of  fitness  to  enter  thereupon,  such 
as  letters  of  recommendation  from  former  professors  and 
instructors. 

Once  admitted  as  a  candidate,  the  student's  work  will 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  105 

ordinarily  be  under  the  direction  of  one  or  more  Super- 
visors, one  of  whom  is  usually  a  professor,  appointed  by 
the  Board  of  Faculty  concerned.  The  duty  of  the 
Supervisors  is  to  direct  and  superintend  the  work  of  the 
student,  but  not  to  give  him  systematic  instruction. 

The  residence  requirements  are  not  severe:  an  Oxford 
B.A.  is  not  required  to  put  in  any  further  residence;  and 
other  students  must  reside  at  the  University  only  a 
minimum  of  six  terms  {i.  e.  about  half  the  time  of  two 
calendar  years). 

Upon  completion  of  work,  the  student  applies  to  the 
Board  for  a  certificate  of  merit,  accompanying  his 
application  by  copies  of  his  dissertation.  Examiners 
appointed  by  the  Board  consider  the  dissertation,  and 
examine  the  student  publicly  in  its  subject  and  in  matters 
relevant  to  his  course  of  study  or  research.  Upon  their 
favorable  report,  approved  by  the  Board  (which  approval 
may  be  conditioned  upon  the  publication  of  the  disserta- 
tion or  some  portion  of  it)  the  student  is  entitled  to 
receive  the  degree  of  B.Litt.  or  B.Sc,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Persons  who  have  received  the  B.Litt.  or  the  B.Sc. 
may,  after  reaching  the  20th  term  from  their  matricula- 
tion, supplicate  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters 
(D.Litt.)  or  Doctor  of  Science  (D.Sc),  as  the  case  may  be. 
Oxford  M.A.'s  who  have  entered  upon  the  30th  term  ( 
from  their  matriculation  are  also  eligible  to  supplicate 
for  either  of  these  degrees.  The  candidate  must  offer  a 
"published  paper  or  book,  containing  an  original  con- 
tribution to  the  advancement  of  learning  or  science", 
and  one  year  must  elapse  between  the  publication  of 
such  paper  or  book  and  its  submission  in  support  of  his 
application  for  the  degree.     The  material  submitted  is 


io6  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

considered  by  the  Board  of  Faculty  concerned,  and  if 
approved,  the  applicant  is  entitled  to  the  degree  of 
D.Litt.  or  D.Sc,  as  the  case  may  be.  There  are  corre- 
sponding requirements  in  the  Faculties  of  Law  and  of 
Medicine  for  the  corresponding  degrees  of  D.C.L.  and 
D.M.  (see  pages  112  and  113) 

Doctorate  of  Philosophy 

Until  1918  no  doctorate  was  obtainable  at  Oxford  until 
approximately  seven  years  from  matriculation,  and  even 
then  only  if  the  student  had  previously  proceeded  to  a 
baccalaureate.  But  in  that  year  a  new  Doctorate  of 
Philosophy  (D.Phil.)  was  established.  This  new  degree 
embodies  substantially  the  features  and  requirements 
commonly  associated  with  the  Ph.D.  degree  of  American 
universities.  It  is  a  research  degree  for  a  graduate  stu- 
dent, who  comes  to  the  University  as  such,  and  pursues 
his  subject  of  research  for  from  two  to  three  calendar 
years,  finally  ofifering  for  the  degree  a  dissertation 
actually  published  or  accepted  for  publication,  and 
being  examined  on  its  subject  and  matters  relevant 
thereto. 

The  importance  of  this  new  degree  to  the  University 
and  to  American  and  other  foreign  students  cannot  be 
over  emphasized.  It  at  last  makes  possible  at  Oxford — 
not  graduate  research  work,  for  that  was  possible  before 
— but  the  attainment  within  a  reasonable  length  of  time 
of  a  title  of  recognition  for  such  work  which  will  be 
understood  and  accepted  in  the  United  States.  The 
change  should  quickly  lead  to  the  presence  of  more  re- 
search students  at  the  University,  and  the  strengthening 
of  its  graduate  school. 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  107 

For  the  purposes  of  this  degree,  the  University  has 
created  the  status  of  Advanced  Student;  and  only  such 
students  are  permitted  to  suppHcate  for  the  D.Phil.  The 
following  persons  may  be  admitted  to  the  status  of 
Advanced  Student: 

1.  Members  of  the  University: 

(a)  Who  have  been  placed  in  the  first  or  second  class  in  a 

Final  Honour  School; 

(b)  Who  have  received  a  certificate  entitling    them    to   sup- 

plicate for  the  degree  of  B.I.itt.  or  B.Sc. ; 

(c)  \\"ho   have   been   placed   in   the   first   class  in  Honour 

Moderations  or  Honour  Mathematical  Moderations 
and  who  have  passed  all  necessary'  examinations  for 
the  B.A. ; 

(d)  Who  have  recei\ed  the  degree  of  B.A.  or  M.A.,  and  who 

satisfy  the  Committee  for  Advanced  Studies  of  their 
fitness  to  receive  the  status  of  Advanced  Student. 

2.  Students  from  other  universities,  who  satisfy  the  follo\ying 
conditions: 

(a)   They  must  be  not  less  than  22  years  of  age; 

{b)  They  must  have  obtained  a  degree  at  a  university,  such 
degree  and  university  being  approved  by  the  Com- 
mittee for  Advanced  Studies.  (It  may  be  assumed 
that  the  ordinary'  degrees  of  any  American  university 
of  good  standing  will  be  accepted.); 

(c)  They  must  have  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  one  or 

more  universities  so  approved,  extending  over  four 
years  at  least ; 

(d)  They  must  have  produced  evidence,  to  the  satisfaction 

of  the  Committee,  of  fitness  to  engage  in  research. 


io8  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

(This  evidence  should  ordinarily  take  the  form  of 
testimonials  from  professors  familiar  with  the  appli- 
cant's work.) 

The  applicant  must  also  state  the  subject  and  nature 
of  his  proposed  course  of  study  or  research.  His  applica- 
tion approved,  he  at  once  takes  up  the  pursuit  of  his 
study  or  research  under  the  general  direction  of  the 
Board  of  Faculty  to  which  his  subject  belongs,  and 
under  the  immediate  direction  of  Supervisors  appointed 
by  that  Board.  The  Supervisors  will  direct  and  super- 
intend the  work  of  the  student,  but  are  not  expected  to 
give  him  systematic  instruction.  The  amount  of  assist- 
ance given  will  depend  partly  on  the  needs  of  the  stu- 
dent, and  still  more  on  the  nature  of  the  subject  of  his 
research.  Where  the  research  is  carried  on  in  some 
branch  of  Natural  Science,  the  student  will  be  working 
in  a  laboratory,  under  the  eye  of  the  Supervisor,  with 
whom  he  will  be  in  daily  intercourse.  On  the  literary 
side,  too,  there  are  subjects  such  as  Palaeography  and 
Papyrology,  in  which  the  student  would  probably  work 
in  constant  touch  with  his  Supervisor.  Where,  again, 
there  are  sufficient  students  in  a  subject  to  permit  of  the 
formation  of  a  seminar,  that  will  be  done.  In  many 
cases,  both  the  Supervisor  and  the  student  may  find 
that  all  that  is  necessary  and  desirable  is  for  the  Super- 
visor to  direct  the  student  to  the  best  sources  of  in- 
formation, and  to  advise  him  on  important  matters. 
(In  Modern  History  and  English  Literature,  courses  of 
lectures  for  advanced  students  have  been  organized. 

The  Advanced  Student  will  ordinarily  be  required  to 
spend  at  least  three  academic  years  on  his  course  of 
research  work.    (In  the  case  of  certain  Oxford  B.A.  men. 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  109 

or  those  entitled  to  the  B.Litt.  or  B.Sc,  this  require- 
ment is  reduced  to  five  terms.)  But  the  entire  three 
years  need  not  be  spent  actually  at  Oxford;  the  actual 
residence  required  is  only  six  terms,  and  the  remainder  of 
the  course  may  be  pursued  elsewhere  upon  permission 
from  the  Committee  for  Advanced  Studies.  Further- 
more, the  Board  may  permit  the  period  of  three  academic 
years  to  be  reduced  to  two,  if  the  student  has  done  satis- 
factory research  work  at  his  previous  university. 
The  substantial  conditions  for  the  D.Phil,  are: 

1.  A  dissertation  which  shall  be  of  such  a  character  as  to 

be  deemed  by  the  examiners  appointed  by  the  Board 
to  constitute  "an  original  contribution  to  knowledge 
set  forth  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  fit  for  publication 
in  extcnso";  such  dissertation  shall  have  been  actually 
published  or  accepted  for  publication  before  the  degree 
can  be  taken. 

2.  A  mva  voce  examination  in  the  subject  of  the  dissertation, 

and  a  written  and  viva  voce  examination  in  matters  rele- 
vant to  that  subject.  (In  the  Faculties  of  Medicine  and 
Natural  Science,  the  written  examination  is  discretionary 
with  the  Board  of  the  Faculty  concerned.) 

The  new  doctorate  is  designed  only  for  those  fully 
qualified  for  research;  the  work  required  must  be  of  a 
high  order,  and  presented  in  literary  form. 

An  important  feature  of  the  degree  is  the  provision 
for  giving  credit  for  research  work  done  elsewhere.  It 
may  be  hoped  that  reciprocal  recognition  may  be  given 
by  American  universities  to  work  done  at  Oxford. 

The  advantages  of  Oxford  for  the  research  student 
need  not  be  dwelt  upon.  The  University  teaching  staff 
includes  men  of  leading  position  in  their  respective  fields. 


no  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

The  University  libraries,  museums  and  institutions  con- 
tain abundant  and  rich  materials,  such  as  are  scarcely 
to  be  found  in  the  younger  universities  of  America  and 
the  British  Dominions.  The  Bodleian  Library — the 
\  largest  university  library  in  the  world — is  especially  rich 
in  manuscripts  and  other  materials  covering  mediaeval 
and  modern  history,  both  English  and  European,  and 
English  literature.  The  Taylorian  Library  contains  an 
exceptional  collection  covering  the  literature  and  philol- 
ogy of  the  modern  European  languages.  Brief  descrip- 
tions of  these  and  other  libraries,  museums  and  institu- 
tions of  the  University  are  contained  in  Appendix  A. 
Furthermore,  the  student  is  within  easy  reach  of  the 
British  Museum  in  London,  and  not  far  from  the 
resources  of  Paris  and  other  Continental  libraries. 

3.   Degrees  in  Law, — B.C.L.  and  D.C.L. 

The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Civil  Law  (B.C.L.)  is  a 
post-graduate  degree  of  high  standing  in  the  University; 
and  is  perhaps  the  best  general  degree  in  law  in  the 
British  Empire.  It  is  open  to  holders  of  the  Oxford  B.A., 
and  to  persons  above  the  age  of  21  who  have  obtained  a 
degree  in  Arts,  Philosophy,  Science  or  Law  in  some  other 
university  and  who  have  satisfied  the  Board  of  the 
Faculty  of  Law  that  they  will  be  qualified  to  pursue  an 
advanced  course  of  legal  study.  The  minimum  residence 
requirement  is  two  years.  The  examination  may  be  gen- 
erally described  as  an  extension  and  intensification  of 
the  B.A.  in  Jurisprudence.  The  written  papers  are  fol- 
lowed by  a  viva  voce.  The  subjects  of  examination  in- 
clude: Jurisprudence  and  Theory  of  Legislation;  Roman 
Law,  including  the  law  of  the  Institutes  and  a  Special 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  in 

Subject  selected  from  the  Digest;  English  Law,  including 
Real  and  Personal  Property,  Contracts,  Torts,  Criminal 
Law,  Procedure  of  the  High  Court,  Equity  (with 
special  reference  to  Trusts  and  Partnership),  and  one 
special  subject  selected  from  a  prescribed  list;  Interna- 
tional Law,  Public  or  Private;  Roman-Dutch  Law 
(optional). 

The  B.C.L.  examination  is  considered  one  of  the  most 
difficult  in  the  University.  It  covers  a  wider  range  of 
subjects  than  is  ordinarily  studied  in  an  American  law 
school.  For  example, considerable  attention  is  paid  to  Ro- 
man law;  candidates  must  have  a  fair  knowledge  of  Latin, 
and  an  ability  to  read  the  works  of  French  and  German 
jurists  in  the  original  is  of  material  assistance  in  preparing 
for  examinations.  While  some  lectures  are  given,  prac- 
tically all  the  work  must  be  done  by  the  student  under 
the  guidance  of  his  tutor  and  without  formal  instruction. 
The  case  system  of  instruction,  so  prevalent  in  America,  is 
not  in  use  at  Oxford;  although  students  are  required  to 
read  and  know  a  very  large  number  of  cases. 

American  students  who  have  previously  studied  but 
little  law  have  found  it  wiser  to  begin  their  studies  at 
Oxford  with  the  B.A.  in  Jurisprudence,  rather  than  with 
the  B.C.L.  If  one  is  ambitious  and  willing  to  give  up  terms 
and  vacations  for  three  years  to  close  and  persistent  work 
he  can  take  the  B.A.  in  two  years  and  follow  it  with  the 
B.C.L.  at  the  end  of  the  third  year.  This  programme, 
although  exacting,  has  been  carried  out  by  a  number  of 
Rhodes  Scholars,  both  American  and  Colonial. 

Americans  who  have  not  been  to  Oxford  have  been 
known  to  question  the  practical  value  of  law  studies 
pursued  there  with  a  view  to  practice  in  the  United 


112  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

States.  There  should  be  no  uneasiness  on  this  point. 
The  law  studied  is  chiefly  English  common  law  and 
equity — the  principles  of  which  are  the  same  in  both 
jurisdictions.  The  B.C.L.  covers  in  English  law  substan- 
tially the  field  covered  in  American  law  schools;  and  the 
Oxford  standard  of  work  is  at  least  as  high.  Furthermore, 
local  state  authorities  in  America  usually  credit  time 
spent  at  Oxford  toward  the  qualifications  necessary  for 
bar  examinations.  In  short,  the  Oxford  B.C.L.  graduate 
will  not  find  himself  at  a  disadvantage  as  a  practising 
lawyer  in  the  United  States.  This  is  established  by  the 
experience  of  American  Rhodes  Scholars  now  practising 
successfully  at  home  without  having  attended  an  Amer- 
ican law  school  either  before  or  after  their  Oxford  course. 
The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law  (D.C.L.)  may  be 
obtained  by  any  person  who  has  taken  the  B.C.L.  and 
has  thereafter  pursued  the  study  of  Civil  Law  for  five 
years  from  the  date  of  that  degree.  The  candidate  must 
submit  a  dissertation  upon  a  subject  previously  approved 
by  the  Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law ;  or  a  book,  treating 
in  a  scientific  manner  of  a  legal  subject,  already  printed 
and  published,  of  which  he  is  the  author. 

4.   Degrees  in  Medicine, — B.M.  (B.Ch.),  M.Ch.,  D.M. 

The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Medicine  (with  which  is 
always  granted  that  of  Bachelor  of  Surgery)  can  be 
obtained  only  by  persons  who  have  previously  received 
the  Oxford  B.A.,  and  who  have  passed  certain  exami- 
nations, including: 

I.    A  First  Examination,  covering  Organic  Chemistry,  Human 
Anatomy,  and  Human  Physiology. 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  ii.^ 

2.  A  Second  Examination,  including  Medicine,  Surgery, 
Midwifery,  Pathology,  Forensic  Medicine  and  Public 
Health,  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacology. 

Examinations  are  written,  viva  voce,  and  practical.  No 
candidate  is  admitted  to  the  Second  Examination  until 
at  least  the  i8th  term  from  matriculation.  The  ordinary 
time  taken  for  the  B.M.  is  six  or  seven  years,  during 
which  the  student  will  generally  have  taken  the  B.A.  in 
the  School  of  Natural  Science.  This  degree,  for  reasons  of 
time  if  for  no  other  difficulties,  is  beyond  the  reach  of 
Rhodes  Scholars  within  the  three  years  for  which  their 
scholarships  run. 

The  degree  of  Master  of  Surgery  (M.Ch.)  is  obtain- 
able by  a  Bachelor  of  Surgery  who  has  attained  the  2 1st 
term  from  matriculation,  on  passing  an  examination  in 
the  practice  of  Surgery,  Surgical  Anatomy,  Surgical 
Pathology,  and  Surgical  Operations. 

The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  (D.M.)  may  be 
applied  for  by  candidates  who  hold  the  degree  of  B.M. 
and  who  have  entered  upon  their  30th  term  from  matric- 
ulation, upon  presentation  of  a  dissertation  on  a  sub- 
ject connected  with  the  Science  or  Practice  of  Medicine, 
and  including  the  history  and  literature  of  the  subject 
treated.  Under  certain  circumstances  a  book  recently 
published  may  be  accepted  instead  of  a  dissertation. 

5.   Degrees  in  Theology  (Divinity), — B.D.,  D.D. 

The  following  persons  are  eligible  for  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Divinity: 

I.    A  person  holding  the  Oxford  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  (other 
than  a  degree  honoris  causa),  provided: 


114  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

(c)  he  shall  have  passed  the  qualifying  examination;  and 
(b)  he  shall  have  obtained  from  the  Board  of  the  Faculty 
of  Theology  a  certificate  that  he  has  presented  a 
thesis  of  sufficient  merit  to  entitle  him  to  supplicate 
for  the  degree. 
2.  A  person  not  under  the  age  of  21,  who  has  been  or  is  qualified 
to  be  matriculated  in  the  University,  and  who  is  a 
graduate  of  some  other  university,  and  deemed  by 
the  Board  to  be  well  qualified  to  pursue  a  course  of 
study  in  Christian  Theology,  may  become  a  candi- 
date for  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity,  and  may 
be  admitted  to  the  qualifying  examination  not  earlier 
than  the  sixth  (or  ninth,  in  the  case  of  Foreign, 
Colonial  and  certain  other  students)  term  from  ma- 
triculation. After  keeping  statutory  residence  in  the 
University  for  six  terms,  such  a  person  may  suppli- 
cate for  the  degree,  provided: 
(o)   he  shall  have  passed  the  qualifying  examination 

(b)  he  shall  have  obtained  certificates  from  the  Board  that 

he  has  occupied  himself  for  five  terms  at  least  after 
his  admission  in  the  study  of  Christian  Theology 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Board;  and  that  he  has 
presented  a  thesis  of  sufificient  merit  to  entitle  him 
to  supplicate  for  the  degree;  and 

(c)  he  shall  have  attained  the  age  of  twenty-six  years. 

The  qualifying  examination  includes  papers  in  the 
following  subjects,  all  of  which  must  be  taken  by  the 
candidate:  The  Old  Testament,  Apocrypha,  the  New 
Testament;  translations  from  at  least  two  of  the  follow- 
ing languages:  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin;  Church  History; 
Christian  Ethics,  Philosophy  of  Religion,  Comparative 
Religion  and  Christian  Doctrine.  The  thesis  must  be 
upon  some  subject  of  Christian  Theology  approved  by 
the  Board. 


ADVANCED  DEGREES  115 

Generally  speaking,  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity 
is  open  only  to  (i)  Masters  of  Arts  of  the  University  who 
hold  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity  and  who  have 
attained  their  42ad  term  from  matriculation  (in  the  case 
of  persons  whose  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  was  conferred 
by  Convocation,  to  such  of  them  as  have  attained  the 
2ist  term  from  admission  to  that  degree);  (2)  to  persons 
admitted  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity  as  grad- 
uates of  another  University  provided  they  have  at- 
tained the  age  of  33  years.  An  application  for  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity  must  be  accompanied  by  a  pub- 
lished work  or  a  thesis  dealing  with  some  subject  or  sub- 
jects of  Christian  Theology  and  containing  an  original 
contribution  to  the  study  thereof.  A  candidate  is  subject 
to  examination  upon  the  subjects  of  his  published  work  or 
thesis. 

6.   Degrees  in  Music, — B.Mus.  and  D.Mus. 

The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Music  (B.Mus.)  is  open  to 
candidates  who  have  passed  Responsions  or  the  special 
preliminary  examination  for  students  in  Music  (or  who 
are  exempt  from  either  of  these),  provided  they  shall  have 
passed  the  prescribed  examinations  for  the  degree,  shall 
have  composed  a  musical  exercise  approved  by  the  exam- 
iners, and  shall  have  either  been  admitted  to  the  degree 
of  B.A.  or  passed  certain  examinations  in  the  Pass  School 
and  have  pursued  for  two  years  a  course  of  study  at  Ox- 
ford or  at  some  Academy  or  College  approved  by  the 
Board  of  Studies  for  Music.  The  preliminary  examina- 
.tion  consists  of  any  three  subjects  of  Responsions, 
including  two  languages  other  than  English.  The  exam- 
inations for  the  degree  include: 


ii6  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

1.  A  First  Examination  in  Harmony  and  Counterpoint  in  not 

more  than  four  parts. 

2.  A  Second  Examination  covering  Harmony  and  Counter- 

point in  five  parts,  the  history  of  the  art  of  music,  play- 
ing at  sight  from  full  score,  instrumentation,  original 
composition,  including  fugue  in  not  more  than  four 
parts,  and  certain  standard  works. 

The  musical  exercise  may  not  be  submitted  until  the 
ninth  term  from  matriculation;  but  it  should  be  noted- 
that  residence  is  not  a  requisite  for  eligibility  for  the  de- 
gree. The  musical  exercise  should  be  a  vocal  work  of 
not  more  than  four  movements  including  a  five-part 
chorus,  a  song  or  duet,  an  unaccompanied  vocal  quartet, 
and  a  five-part  choral  fugue. 

The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Music  is  open  to  the  holder 
of  the  B.Mus.  who  shall  have  received  that  degree  at  least 
three  years  previously;  and  to  holders  of  the  degree  of 
M.A.  who  have  entered  upon  their  30th  term  from 
matriculation.  Candidates  are  examined  in  composi- 
tion, orchestration  and  allied  subjects,  general  musical 
history,  and  detailed  analysis  of  certain  prescribed 
compositions.  Each  candidate  must  submit  an  original 
musical  composition  which  must  be  either  (i)  an  ex- 
tended work  for  solo  voices,  chorus  and  full  orchestra; 
a  symphony  for  full  orchestra;  or  a  symphonic  poem, 
concerto,  variations  or  suite,  for  full  orchestra;  or  (2) 
an  extended  chamber-work  for  at  least  three  instru- 
ments, a  sonata  for  not  less  than  two  instruments, 
song  cycle,  or  an  extended  work  for  unaccompanied 
voices  in  not  less  than  five  parts;  provided  that  if  one  of 
this  second  alternative  set  is  chosen,  there  must  also  be 
offered  an  overture  or  fantasia  for  full  orchestra. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD;  THEIR  HISTORY 
AND  CHARACTERISTICS 

By  Joseph  Wells,  M.A.,  Warden  of  Wadham  College 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
as  contrasted  with  other  universities,  is  that  they  are 
still  universities  of  colleges.  These  institutions  were 
once  widespread;  the  causes  that  have  led  to  their  sur- 
vival in  the  old  English  universities  do  not  concern  us 
here,  nor  the  question  whether  their  influence  on  the 
University  has  been  for  its  good  or  not.  What  is  certain 
is  that  the  choice  of  a  college  is  a  material  factor  in  a 
man's  Oxford  life,  and  that  in  his  college  will  be  centred 
the  larger  part  of  his  university  interest. 

The  distinctive  marks  of  all  Oxford  colleges  are  that 
they  are  societies  founded  for  purposes  of  education, 
that  they  have  endowments  to  render  this  easy,  that 
they  are  self-governing,  and  that  their  members  live  a 
common  life,  largely — though  not  entirely — within  the 
walls  of  one  building.  Hence  the  history  of  one  college 
is  in  many  respects  the  history  of  all ;  but  they  all  have 
from  time  to  time  developed  special  features,  and  it  has 
been  the  good  fortune  of  Oxford  that  none  of  its  colleges 
has  ever  so  developed  as  to  secure  a  preponderating 
position,  and  that  none  of  them  is  so  small  that  it  has 


ii8  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

not  been  able  to  contribute  materially  to  the  history  and 
the  activities  of  the  University. 

Three  colleges  in  Oxford  claim  priority  of  date  and 
they  all  have  grounds  for  their  claim.  University  College 
heads  the  official  list;  and  undoubtedly  the  oldest 
college  endowment  belongs  to  it,  for  it  was  in  1249  that 
William  of  Durham  lent  money  for  the  support  of  "ten 
or  more"  students  of  theology.  But  this  was  for  30 
years  a  mere  trust  in  the  hands  of  the  University,  and  the 
College  did  not  receive  its  statutes  until  1280.  Balliol's 
claim  to  priority  is  that  it  has  occupied  its  present  site 
for  a  longer  period  than  any  other  Oxford  college.  But 
the  essence  of  a  college  is  self-government,  and  by  this 
test  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  pride  of  first  place  must 
be  assigned  to  Merton.  Walter  de  Merton,  Bishop  of 
Rochester  and  Chancellor  to  the  great  Edward  I,  was 
one  of  those  ecclesiastical  statesmen  to  whom  England 
owes  so  much.  He  saw  that  there  was  a  danger  that  the 
best  students  in  the  universities,  which  were  rapidly 
rising  to  power,  might  be  attracted  by  the  orders  of 
the  Preaching  Friars,  the  Franciscans  and  the  Domini- 
cans, and  so  be  lost  to  the  Secular  Clergy.  Such  a  loss 
would  have  been  most  serious,  for  the  Secular  Clergy  in 
Mediaeval  England  furnished  the  whole  of  what  would 
now  be  called  "the  professional  class".  To  prevent  this 
absorption  he  devoted  his  revenues  to  founding  an  insti- 
tution which  in  wealth  and  dignity  should  rival  the 
great  friaries  which  had  already  been  built  in  Oxford. 
It  was  a  condition  in  his  statutes  from  the  first  that  his 
students  should  never  be  members  of  the  Regular 
Clergy.  By  1274  his  scheme  was  complete,  and  Merton 
College  for  nearly  600  years  was  governed  by  the  statutes 


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COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  119 

that  he  drew  up.  And  his  example  was  soon  followed, 
e.  g.  in  Peterhouse  at  Cambridge  and  in  the  next  half 
century  by  three  colleges  at  Oxford,  Exeter  (1314), 
Oriel  (1327)  and  Queen's  (1340),  all  founded  like  Merton 
by  ecclesiastics.  The  endowments  of  University  College 
and  of  Balliol  were  also  regulated  by  statutes  drawn  up 
on  the  model  of  Merton.  Hence  Walter  de  Merton  is 
well  described  on  his  monument  in  his  Cathedral  of 
Rochester,  as  the  founder  "exemplo  omnium  qiiotquot 
extant  collegiorum" . 

By  a  happy  chance  Merton  as  the  "type"  college  has 
preserved  its  original  buildings  almost  entirely;  the 
Chapel  is  a  beautiful  specimen  of  Edwardian  Gothic,  the 
Hall,  though  ruined  by  "restoration",  has  still  a  wonder- 
ful thirteenth  century  door,  the  same  Treasury  has  from 
the  first  sheltered  Merton's  unique  series  of  accounts,  and 
even  the  living  rooms  of  the  "Mob  Quad"  all  belong 
to  the  fourteenth  century.  The  Library  especially, 
which  was  built  about  a  century  after  the  Founder's 
death,  is  the  finest  example  of  a  mediaeval  Library  in 
England. 

Merton  remained  "the  college"  for  100  years,  and  when 
it  w^as  eclipsed  in  magnificence  by  William  of  Wykeham's 
College  of  St.  Mary  of  Winchester  (1386),  the  nickname 
"New  College",  given  to  his  foundation  was  evidence  that 
no  previous  one  could  rival  Merton.  As  a  proof  that 
Walter  de  Merton  had  not  planned  in  vain  may  be 
mentioned  the  fact  that,  between  1294  and  1366,  six  of 
the  seven  Archbishops  of  Canterbury  were  Merton  men. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  still  "the  first  subject", 
not  of  royal  blood,  in  England;  and  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury he  was  even  more  important.    But  the  names  of 


I20  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Merton's  archbishops  are  forgotten,  while  that  of  their 
contemporary,  John  Wycliffe  is  a  household  word ;  that 
he  was  a  Fellow  of  Merton,  there  is  good  evidence,  though 
the  fact  is  not  quite  certain. 

Of  the  other  live  colleges  which  have  been  grouped  with 
Merton,  there  is  little  to  say  during  this  period.  It  is 
a  curious  coincidence,  though  only  a  coincidence,  that 
two,  Exeter  and  Oriel,  were  founded  in  the  short  and 
troubled  reign  of  Edward  II,  and  that  two  colleges  also 
were  founded  (Trinity  and  St.  John's),  in  the  even  shorter 
reign  of  Mary.  Exeter  was  especially  a  foundation  for 
men  from  the  western  counties,  Balliol  had  from  the  first 
a  connection  with  Scotland,  and  Queen's  with  Northwest 
England.  There  was  nothing  unusual  in  these  local  con- 
nections; in  the  fourteenth  century  these  were  the  rule; 
what  is  interesting  is  that,  unlike  most  other  colleges,  all 
these  three  have  in  varying  degrees  preserved  their  local 
connection ;  this  is  especially  true  of  Queen's  College. 

Closely  connected  with  Queen's  College,  and  of  even 
greater  age,  is  the  dependent  foundation  of  St.  Edmund 
Hall,  the  only  surviving  example  of  a  system  of  Univer- 
sity life  older  than  the  college  foundations.  The  halls 
were  originally  independent  self-governing  bodies,  but 
gradually  the  authority  of  the  Chancellor  was  extended 
over  them.  Queen's,  however,  acquired  in  1559  and  has 
succeeded  in  keeping,  the  right  to  nominate  the  head  of 
St.  Edmund  Hall.  The  Hall  is  said  to  derive  its  name 
from  St.  Edmund,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  HI;  but  the  earliest  Principals  on  record 
held  ofifice  in  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  no  part  of  its  picturesque  buildings  dates  earlier  than 
1450. 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  121 

The  later  Middle  Ages  in  England,  i.e.,  the  fourteenth 
and  the  fifteenth  centuries,  were  comparatively  barren  of 
great  men;  but  no  one  can  refuse  this  name  to  Edward 
the  Black  Prince  and  Henry  V,  who  are  said  to  have  been 
at  Queen's  College  (of  Henry  V  this  is  probably  true),  or 
to  John  Wycliffe  who,  whatever  his  connection  with 
Merton,  was  certainly  Master  of  Balliol,  though  only  for 
about  one  year.  As  the  opponent  of  Papal  authority  and 
as  the  first  to  appeal  in  religious  matters  to  the  people,  he 
is  the  forerunner  of  a  new  era.  Certainly  Oxford,  though 
not  Balliol,  was  the  centre  from  which  went  forth  his 
"Poor  Preachers",  and  which  furnished  him  with  helpers 
in  his  translation  of  the  Bible.  It  was  Oriel  College 
which  was  the  centre  of  the  Wycliffite  Movement;  the 
suppression  of  which  required  the  whole  power  of 
Archbishop  Arundel,  reinforced  by  royal  authority. 

The  anti-Wycliffite  reaction  was  the  origin  of  the  next 
two  colleges  to  be  founded.  New  College  (1386)  and 
Lincoln  (1429).  Both  were  intended  to  train  a  learned 
clergy  to  defend  the  Church  and  to  supply  her  with  min- 
isters. Of  these.  New  College  is  the  more  famous.  Its 
founder,  William  of  Wykeham,  had  been  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Parliamentary  opposition  to  Edward  III, 
and  alike  as  a  statesman  and  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
English  architects  deserves  to  be  remembered.  But  his 
Oxford  college  is  his  real  memorial ;  by  him  it  was  con- 
nected with  Winchester  College,  the  "oldest  English 
public  school",  and  by  its  magnificence  and  its  elaborate 
arrangements  for  teaching  within  its  own  walls,  it  marked 
the  triumph  of  the  college  system.  Wykeham's  work  was 
on  such  a  scale  that  the  larger  part  of  the  New  College 
buildings  date   back   to   his   own   day;     Chapel,   Hall, 


122  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Cloisters,  Quad,  all  remain  to  show  how  adequately' he 
planned  and  how  skilfully  he  built. 

Lincoln  was  a  much  humbler  institution.  Its  founder, 
Richard  Fleming,  had  been  a  follower  of  Wycliffe,  but, 
alarmed  by  the  excesses  of  his  party,  he  devoted  himself 
at  the  end  of  his  life,  when  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  to  check- 
ing the  heresy  he  had  once  supported.  It  is  a  curious 
irony  of  Providence  that  the  most  famous  member  of  his 
"little  college"  should  have  been  John  Wesley,  the 
Wyclijffe  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Three  other  colleges  belong  to  this  period.  All  Souls 
(1438)  founded  to  commemorate  those  who  fell  in  the 
great  French  Wars  of  Henry  V  and  Henry  VI ;  Magdalen 
(1458)  the  most  perfect  in  buildings  and  surroundings  of 
all  Oxford  colleges;  and  Brasenose  (1509).  This  last 
may  be  said  to  have  been  in  some  ways  the  college  most 
consistent  to  type  in  Oxford.  Founded  on  somewhat  old- 
fashioned  lines,  it  has  always  maintained  educationally  a 
connection  with  the  English  landed  gentry,  especially 
those  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire.  Its  worthies  have  been 
men,  not  of  genius,  but  of  that  solid  type  which  England 
has  always  loved:  Nowell,  the  compiler  of  the  Anglican 
Catechism;  Burton,  author  of  the  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly; Barham,  the  witty  poet  of  the  I ngoldsby  Legends; 
and  last  but  not  least.  Lord  Haig  of  Bemerside,  the 
victor  of  1 91 8.  Foxe  the  Martyrologist  and  Robertson 
of  Brighton  may  or  may  not  be  said  to  show  the  same 
type.  Certainly  Walter  Pater  did  not,  and  yet  his  devotion 
to  the  Hellenic  ideal  found  satisfaction  in  one  side  at  all 
events  of  the  life  of  his  college — its  athletic  tradition. 
Brasenose  grit  and  staying  power  have  made  a  new  de- 
velopment in  Pater's  younger  contemporary.  Sir  Arthur 


o 
u 


o 

as 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  123 

Evans,  who,  combining  as  he  does  the  daring  explorer 
and  the  brilliant  scholar,  stands  in  the  very  first  rank 
among  those  who  have  rediscovered  in  our  own  day  the 
Ancient  East.  His  "Minoans"  have  done  even  more  to 
revolutionize  Ancient  History  than  Schliemann's  diggings 
at  Troy  and  Mycenae. 

All  Souls  need  not  long  concern  us.  It  has  developed 
on  lines  different  from  those  of  any  other  Oxford  college, 
and  is  peculiar  in  that  (except  for  four  Bible-clerkships 
held  by  undergraduates)  it  is  a  college  of  fellows  only. 
It  has  been  called  "a  place  of  education  that  does  not 
educate",  but  this  is  the  view  of  narrow  prejudice.  It 
has  played  in  the  past,  and  still  plays,  a  great  part  in 
Oxford  life,  and  by  its  magnificent  Library  and  by  its 
lavish  endowment  of  Law  teachers,  it  has  made  possible 
the  Oxford  Law  School,  which  finds  its  natural  centre  in 
the  lecture  rooms  of  All  Souls.  It  is  fitting  that  Black- 
stone  should  be  among  the  most  prominent  of  All  Souls 
worthies;  his  Commentaries,  once  so  dear  to  the  Ameri- 
can heart,  if  Burke  may  be  trusted,  were  delivered  as 
professorial  lectures  there.  A  less  familiar  side  of  All 
Souls  learning  is  that  of  Science  and  Medicine;  in  our 
own  day  the  College  has  dropped  its  connection  with 
these,  but  the  names  of  Linacre,  of  Thomas  Sydenham 
and  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren  rank  high  in  their  respective 
branches  of  Science. 

But  to  return  to  the  fifteenth  century.  Magdalen  marks 
the  transition  from  Mediaeval  to  Renaissance  Oxford 
and  has  from  its  beginning  taken  the  first  place  in  beauty, 
both  in  buildings  and  in  surroundings,  "The  most  noble 
and  rich  structure  in  the  learned  world",  as  Anthony  Wood 
calls  it,  is  known  the  whole  world  over  for  its  splendid 


124  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

tower,  and  its  other  buildings  agree  worthily  with  this. 
Half  of  them  date  from  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the 
good  genius  of  the  College  saw  to  it  that  the  additions  of 
the  eighteenth  and  the  nineteenth  centuries  carried  on 
the  tradition  of  perfection. 

In  the  very  first  generation  of  its  existence,  Magdalen 
was  the  centre  of  that  distinguished  circle  of  scholars 
which  Erasmus  found  so  delightful,  though  the  most 
famous  of  them,  Sir  Thomas  More,  belonged  to  St. 
Mary's  Hall,  and  so  to  Oriel.  John  Colet  of  Magdalen 
especially  was  the  leader  in  that  Oxford  movement,  so 
delightfully  chronicled  in  Mr.  Seebohm's  book,  which 
sought  to  "reform"  the  Church  by  sound  learning. 

The  same  college  trained  the  two  most  munificent  of 
Renaissance  founders,  Foxe  and  Wolsey,  whose  colleges, 
Corpus  Christi  and  Qhrist  Church,  were  from  the  be- 
ginning homes  of  the  "New  Learning".  Corpus  was  the 
first  college  in  England  where  Greek  teaching  was  defi- 
nitely endowed,  and  it  has  remained  ever  since  a  special 
home  of  scholars.  Perhaps  what  especially  distinguishes 
Bishop  Foxe's  foundation  is  the  well-marked  character 
for  learning  which  it  has  always  retained.  Corpus  passed 
through  the  dark  days  of  the  eighteenth  century  with 
much  less  discredit  than  most  Oxford  colleges,  and 
to-day,  deliberately  choosing  to  remain  the  smallest  of 
Oxford  foundations,  it  has  probably  the  highest  average 
standard  intellectually  for  its  undergraduates;  it  aims  also 
at  maintaining  that  close  college  feeling  which  allows 
none  within  its  walls  to  be  outsiders  and  insists  that  every 
man  should  know  every  other  and  make  the  best  of 
him.  Of  the  two  Oxford  movements  with  which  it  is 
especially  connected,  more  will  be  said  later. 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  125 

Cardinal  Wolsey's  name  is  certainly  the  most  magnifi- 
cent on  the  roll  of  Oxford's  Founders,  and  his  college, 
though  robbed  of  its  name  "Cardinal  College",  and  of 
some  of  its  endowments,  by  its  second  "founder",  Henry 
VIII,  has  from  the  first  been  in  the  front  rank  of  Oxford 
institutions,  and  often  for  considerable  periods  "first  and 
the  rest  nowhere".  Of  Wolsey's  work  the  great  Dining 
Hall  survives  to  typify  the  good  old  Oxford  tradition  of 
the  close  connection  of  body  and  mind,  and  of  the  need 
of  sound  food  for  both.  The  worthies  of  Christ  Church 
whose  portraits  make  its  Hall  Oxford's  best  picture- 
gallery  will  be  mentioned  in  their  places  later. 

The  Reformation  proper  was  a  Cambridge  movement, 
and  Oxford  produced  hardly  any  reformers  of  the  first 
rank;  but  William  Tyndall  of  Magdalen  Hall  (now 
incorporated  in  Hertford  College)  must  at  least  be  men- 
tioned, for  to  his  scholarship  and  command  of  the  best 
Tudor  English  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible 
owes  more  than  to  any  other  translator.  He  was  a 
martyr  as  well  as  a  confessor.  But  Oxford  probably 
gave  more  of  its  sons  as  martyrs  to  the  Roman  Faith, 
than  to  the  Reformation ;  a  notable  example  is  the  Jesuit, 
Edmund  Campion  of  St.  John's. 

The  Reformation  movement  robbed  Oxford  of  some 
of  its  colleges,  i.  e.,  those  which  had  been  held  by  the 
Regular  Clergy.  Two  of  these,  however — Durham  (1286) 
and  St.  Bernard's  (1437) — were  refounded  at  once  in 
the  reign  of  Mary,  as  Trinity  (1554)  and  St.  John's 
(1555),  respectively.  Both  of  these  owed  their  restora- 
tion to  wealthy  citizens  of  London,  men  devoted  to  the 
old  form  of  the  Faith,  but  Englishmen  before  they  were 
Romanists,    and    prepared    to    benefit    their    country's 


126  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Church  even  if  they  thought  it  had  strayed  into  heresy. 

Trinity  has  never  been  identified  with  any  great 
Oxford  movement;  yet  probably  few  Oxford  colleges 
have  produced  so  many  famous  men.  Perhaps  its  con- 
nection with  America  may  especially  be  noted.  In 
Calvert  it  claims  a  founder  of  one  of  the  13  original  States 
(Maryland);  in  William  Pitt,  "the  great  commoner", 
the  man  who  won  America  for  the  English-speaking  peo- 
ples; in,  Lord  North,  the  man  who  threw  half  of  the 
great  conquest  away;  and  in  Lord  Bryce,  the  expounder 
of  the  American  Constitution  and  political  institutions, 
and  England's  well-loved  ambassador. 

Under  Henry  VIII  and  Edward  VI  Oxford  seemed 
likely  to  perish.  Under  Elizabeth  scholarship  revived 
somewhat,  thanks  to  the  liberality  of  men  like  Bodley, 
who  was  lecturer  in  Greek  at  Merton  College  for  years 
before  he  went  out  to  serve  his  Queen  as  ambassador 
and  returned  to  found  the  greatest  university  library 
in  the  world.  The  Anglican  tradition  was  established 
with  learning  and  eloquence  by  Bishop  Jewel  of  Corpus 
and  still  more  by  his  great  pupil,  Richard  Hooker,  Eng- 
land's most  famous  divine.  Last  but  not  least  Christ 
Church  was  the  home  of  Richard  Hakluyt,  whose  loving 
care  has  preserved  the  memories  of  the  Elizabethan 
adventurers,  and  who  taught  geography  himself  in 
Oxford  as  well  as  wrote  of  those  who  extended  its  limits. 
Christ  Church  also  sent  forth  Sir  Humphry  Gilbert,  the 
martyr  among  English  colony  founders,  while  his  more 
fortunate  half-brother.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  was  educated 
at  Oriel.  Perhaps  it  was  through  this  connection  that 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Harriot,  the  historian  of  his 
colony  of  Virginia,  so  unfortunate  for  the  moment,  so 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD 


127 


rich  ultimately  in  glorious  results.  Oxford  did  not 
retain  so  close  a  connection  with  the  New  World  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  but,  besides  Calvert  already  men- 
tioned, Penn  of  Christ  Church,  John  Locke  of  Christ 
Church,  and  Oglethorpe  of  Corpus  will  ever  be  remembered 
in  America  as  founders  in  wholeor  in  part, of  Pennsylvania, 
Carolina  and  Georgia  respectively.  And  it  is  not  un- 
natural to  mention  in  this  same  connection,  George 
Grenville  of  Christ  Church,  whose  ill-judged  Stamp  Act 
began  the  trouble  which  under  Lord  North  became 
fatally  aggravated;  and  Cecil  Rhodes  of  Oriel  who 
devoted  his  energies  during  life  and  his  fortune  after 
death  to  drawing  closer  the  ties  between  the  two  great 
branches  of  the  English-speaking  race,  because  he  saw  in 
it  an  instrument  for  the  promotion  of  peace  and  the 
improvement  of  the  world. 

The  transition  in  Oxford  from  the  Reformation  period 
to  the  seventeenth  century  is  marked  by  the  foundation 
of  two  colleges,  Jesus  (1571)  and  Wadham  (1610).  The 
first  was  founded  by  a  Welshman  and  has  always  been 
closely  identified  with  the  Principality.  The  second  is  in  a 
real  sense  the  youngest  Oxford  college,  for  of  those  that 
rank  below  it  in  age,  Pembroke  (1624),  Worcester  (1714) 
and  Hertford  (1874)  are  refoundations  of  old  Halls,  and 
Keble  (1870)  lacks  that  self-government  which,  it  must 
be  said  again,  is  of  the  essence  of  an  Oxford  college. 

The  revival  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  filled 
to  overflowing  the  old  buildings,  and  with  many  colleges 
led  to  reconstruction  on  a  greater  scale;  the  period  from 
1600  to  1640  probably  saw  more  building  in  Oxford  than 
any  other  period  of  similar  length  before  the  great  expan- 
sion in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.    In  the 


128  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

buildings  of  this  period  the  old  Gothic  style  was  still 
preserved,  though  Cambridge  and  London  had  already 
abandoned  it  for  the  classical  style  of  Italy.  Of  this 
late  Gothic,  so  characteristically  English,  by  far  the 
best  example  is  the  buildings  of  Wadham,  admittedly 
among  the  most  beautiful  in  Oxford  and  unique  in  the 
fact  that  they  have  been  left  unaltered  for  300  years. 
And  yet  it  was  from  Wadham  that  the  genius  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren  was  produced,  which  finally  drove  out 
the  old  style,  and  made  the  new  triumph,  in  Oxford  as 
well  as  in  London.  Wadham  has  been  peculiarly  influ- 
ential in  Oxford  architecture,  for  its  buildings  have 
inspired  its  scholar  and  fellow.  Sir  Thomas  Jackson,  still 
happily  living  and  working,  in  his  designs  for  buildings  for 
the  University  and  for  almost  half  the  colleges  during 
the  last  half  century. 

The  revived  University  had  probably  more  students 
between  1600  and  1640  than  at  any  other  period,  prece- 
dent or  subsequent,  until  our  own  day  after  the  Great 
War.  And  it  was  this  restored  Oxford  which  assumed  a 
definite  character  which  exercised  a  marked  efifect  on 
English  history,  and  which  has  been  changed  only  in  our 
own  day,  if  it  has  been  really  changed  at  all. 

The  determining  genius  in  this  change  was  William 
Laud,  who  came  up  to  St.  John's  as  scholar  in  1590, 
became  its  President  in  161 1,  and  who  left  it  to  rise  to  the 
highest  rank  in  the  English  Church  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  He  made  Oxford  learned,  well  ordered, 
better  equipped  with  professors  and  buildings,  but  he 
also  established  finally  that  connection  with  "Church  and 
King",  which  lost  it  the  sympathy  of  half  the  nation  and 
secured   the   enthusiastic  devotion   of    the   other   half. 


o  o: 


•     •   •  .  •   * 


*   •  >  • 


c    «         • 

•••  • 

•        •  •  •  • 


Cecil  John  Rhodes 

.(From  ^  r.iir.iECtnFe ^jai'nted  by  Miss  Mary  Helen  Carlisle.  1896. 
Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  the  Artist) 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  129 

Under  direct  royal  patronage,  Laud  built  the  second 
quadrangle  of  St.  John's,  with  its  garden  front,  "per- 
haps", as  Andrew  Lang  says,  "the  most  lovely  thing  in 
Oxford".  St.  John's  long  retained  the  cavalier  tradition, 
perhaps  it  retains  it  still,  and  certainly  the  old  toast 
quoted  above  is  still  drunk  at  all  its  gatherings;  but  the 
nineteenth  century  abolished  most  of  the  Laudian  stat- 
utes, and  probably  even  in  his  own  college,  the  direct 
tradition  has  passed  away. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  however,  it  made  Oxford 
the  Royalist  capital  of  England.  From  1642  onwards 
Charles  at  Oxford  faced  the  Parliament  at  London;  the 
King  himself  had  his  quarters  at  Christ  Church,  Queen 
Henrietta  Maria  lived  at  Merton,  and  the  colleges  were 
largely  given  over  to  the  courtiers — and  their  wives.  Of 
the  King's  supporters  perhaps  it  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  Prince  Rupert,  who  was  at  St.  John's,  Edward 
Hyde,  afterwards  Earl  of  Clarendon,  the  first  great 
English  historian,  who  was  at  Magdalen  Hall,  and  Jer- 
emy Taylor,  most  eloquent  of  English  preachers,  whom 
Laud,  by  a  not  very  creditable  job,  brought  from  Cam- 
bridge to  be  a  fellow  of  All  Souls.  But  though  the  bulk  of 
the  University  was  Royalist,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
all  the  great  leaders  on  the  other  side,  except  the  greatest 
of  them  all,  Cromwell,  were  Oxford  men.  "King"  Pym 
was  at  Broadgates  Hall,  which  became  Pembroke  College 
soon  after  he  had  left  it,  Hampden  was  at  Magdalen,  Sir 
John  Eliot  and  Sir  Harry  Vane,  the  martyrs  of  the  Parlia- 
ment under  Charles  I  and  Charles  H,  were  at  Exeter  and 
Magdalen  Hall  respectively,  the  great  scholar  and  lawyer 
Selden  was  at  Hart  Hall,  which  is  merged  in  Hertford 
College,  and  Robert  Blake,  the  greatest  English  Admiral 


I30  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

after  Nelson,  was  at  Wadham.  And  Oxford  produced 
too  some  of  the  best  known  Puritan  controversialists, 
Prynne  of  Oriel,  who  paid  for  the  success  of  his  Histrio- 
mastix  by  the  loss  of  his  ears,  and  John  Owen,  most 
prolific  of  preachers,  who  was  for  a  time  installed  in  the 
Deanery  at  Christ  Church, 

When  the  Parliament  had  triumphed,  Oxford  for  a 
short  time  was  the  centre  of  the  scientific  movement, 
which  led  to  the  foundation  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1662. 
The  greatest  name  in  Oxford  Science  in  the  seventeenth 
century  is  that  of  a  Cambridge  man,  William  Harvey,  the 
discoverer  of  the  circulationof  the  blood,  who  was  intruded 
by  Charles  I  into  the  place  of  the  Puritan  Warden  of 
Merton.  But  the  movement  in  Oxford  centred  round 
another  "intruded"  Warden,  John  Wilkins,  Oliver  Crom- 
well's brother-in-law,  who  ruled  at  Wadham  (1649-1658) 
and  gathered  round  him  the  young  scientific  men  of  the 
day.  Evelyn,  the  Diarist,  who  was  himself  at  Balliol, 
describes  his  visit  to  the  Wadham  "lodgings",  and  how 
he  met  there  "that  prodigious  young  scholar,  Mr.  Chris- 
topher Wren",  who  migrated  to  All  Souls  in  1653  after  four 
years  at  Wadham,  but  who  returned  later  to  his  old 
college  and  resided  there  for  some  time  as  Savilian  Pro- 
fessor first  of  Astronomy,  then  of  Geometry.  It  has 
been  said  of  him  that  he  would  have  been  the  greatest 
of  English  mathematicians  after  Newton,  had  he  not 
preferred  to  be  the  greatest  of  English  architects.  The 
Royal  Society,  incorporated  in  1662,  recognizes  Wadham 
as  "its  cradle".  Many  other  Oxford  men  took  part  in 
this  scientific  movement;  probably  the  only  one  generally 
known  is  Robert  Boyle  of  Christ  Church,  quaintly  de- 
scribed in  his  epitaph  as  "Father  of  Chemistry  and  brother 
of  the  Earl  of  Cork". 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  131 

Even  from  a  wordly  point  of  view  the  triumph  of  the 
Restoration  was  a  mixed  blessing  to  Oxford.  King  James 
II,  in  his  zeal  for  the  Roman  Church,  trampled  on  all 
traditions  and  statutes  in  his  endeavour  to  force  his 
co-religionists  into  the  University.  Magdalen  College 
especially  suffered  from  his  arbitrary  acts.  Because  they 
refused  to  act  illegally  and  accept  his  nominee  as  presi- 
dent, the  President-elect  of  Magdalen,  the  fellows  and 
the  demies  (i.e.,  scholars)  were  turned  out;  fortunately 
for  them  the  King's  bigotry  had  by  this  time  so  stirred 
England  that  doctrines  of  Divine  Right  no  longer  availed 
to  save  him.  The  President  and  fellows  returned  to 
their  college,  and  James  was  driven  from  his  kingdom, 
never  to  return.  Magdalen  still  celebrates  their  "Resto- 
ration" every  25th  of  October,  when  the  toast  of  the  even- 
ing is  "jus  suum  cuique".  Magdalen  at  once  had  its 
reward  in  its  next  election  of  demies,  when  among  the  17 
chosen,  it  gained  not  only  a  future  archbishop  and  a  fu- 
ture bishop,  but  two  of  those  who  were  to  play  a  leading 
part  in  politics  of  the  next  generation,  though  on  opposite 
sides  and  in  very  different  ways:  Henry  Sacheverell,  the 
Tory,  by  a  mere  chance  has  found  a  place  in  all  the  his- 
tories; Joseph  Addison,  the  Whig,  is  not  only  a  political 
pamphleteer  of  the  first  rank,  but  one  of  the  greatest 
names  in  English  Literature.  Magdalen,  it  may  be  noted, 
took  Addison  from  Queen's,  in  accordance  with  the  old 
Oxford  tradition,  which  allows  a  man  to  migrate  to 
"uherior  fortuna"  at  another  college,  though  migration, 
by  almost  unbroken  custom,  is  not  allowed  without  this 
motive. 

Of  the  eighteenth  century  in  Oxford  little  need  be  said, 
and  yet  three  of  the  greatest  names  in  her  history  belong 


132  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

to  it.  One  of  these,  Edward  Gibbon,  is  the  most  quoted 
witness  against  her;  he  says:  "To  the  University  of 
Oxford  I  acknowledge  no  obligation — I  spent  14  months 
at  Magdalen  College;  they  proved  the  most  idle  and 
unprofitable  of  my  whole  life".  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  Gibbon  was  in  Oxford  only  14  months,  and 
that  he  went  up  before  he  was  15.  John  Wesley  and 
Samuel  Johnson  entered  Oxford  about  30  years  before 
Gibbon,  and  much  as  they  differed,  they  both  ac- 
knowledged their  deep  debt  to  their  University.  Wesley 
entered  Christ  Church  in  1720,  Johnson,  Pembroke  in 
1728.  Wesley  migrated  as  fellow  to  Lincoln  in  1726,  and 
resided  nine  years  there;  this  academic  period  was  the 
deciding  period  of  his  life.  It  was  then  that  there  was 
gathered  round  him  the  band  of  earnest  young  men  who 
set  themselves  to  restore  the  spiritual  life  of  England,  and 
who  earned  at  Oxford  the  glorious  nickname  of  "Metho- 
dists", because  they  so  carefully  followed  all  the  rules  of 
the  Church  for  building  up  their  own  spiritual  life.  Charles 
Wesley,  greatest  of  English  hymn  writers,  a  student  of 
Christ  Church  like  his  brother,  and  George  Whitfield, 
greatest  of  revivalists,  a  "servitor"  of  Pembroke,  were  the 
most  famous  of  the  little  band.  Though  Dr.  Johnson 
did  not  reside  in  Oxford  so  long  as  Wesley,  his  sympathy 
with  it  was  closer.  Wesley  bade  farewell  to  his  Univer- 
sity with  a  sermon  of  solemn  warning  from  the  pulpit  of 
St.  Mary's;  Johnson  was  a  constant  visitor,  who  never 
wearied  of  praising  Oxford,  and  who  held  the  doctorate 
she  conferred  on  him  to  be  the  highest  of  his  distinctions. 
It  is  impossible  to  describe  better  the  spirit  of  Oxford 
and  the  relation  of  colleges  to  each  other  than  in  John- 
son's words:  "There  is  here,  Sir,  such  a  spirit  of  progres- 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  133 

sive  emulation :  the  students  are  anxious  to  appear  well 
to  their  tutors;  the  tutors  are  anxious  to  have  their 
pupils  appear  well  in  the  college ;  the  colleges  are  anxious 
to  have  their  students  appear  well  in  the  University". 
This  is  true  still,  though  as  Johnson  goes  on  to  say,  "rules 
are  sometimes  ill-observed". 

It  would  be  easy  to  quote  other  evidence  of  the  love 
which  Oxford  men  had  for  their  University  even  in  the 
eighteenth  century;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  general 
verdict  must  be  unfavourable.  Perhaps  one  more  piece  of 
evidence  may  be  quoted  from  the  life  of  the  greatest  of 
Oxford  poets,  Shelley,  who  was  sent  down  from  Univer- 
sity College  in  181 1  for  publishing  his  pamphlet  on  "The 
Necessity  of  Atheism".  Even  in  less  conservative  days 
such  an  act  might  well  have  led  to  expulsion,  and  his 
college  has  since  "built  the  tomb  of  the  prophet  she 
stoned"  by  accepting  the  beautiful  statue  of  Shelley  by 
Onslow  Ford  and  giving  it  a  splendid  home.  But  the 
words  of  the  poet's  biographer  Hogg  to  Shelley  were 
nevertheless  true,  at  least  in  part:  Oxford  "is  a  seat 
of  learning,  and  I  have  a  right  to  call  it  so.  It  is  a 
seat  in  which  learning  sits  very  comfortably,  as  in  an 
easy  chair,  and  sleeps  so  soundly  that  neither  you  nor  I 
nor  anybody  else  can  wake  her". 

But  the  words  were  not  altogether  true.  Ten  years 
before  Shelley  came  up,  the  Examination  Statute  had 
been  passed  which  was  to  revolutionize  Oxford  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  credit  for  this  mainly  belongs  to 
the  heads  of  three  colleges,  Cyril  Jackson  of  Christ 
Church,  Eveleigh  of  Oriel,  and  Parsons  of  Balliol.  It  is 
curious  that  the  two  latter  of  these  had  both  been  at 
Wadham  before  being  elected  as  fellows  in  the  colleges 
over  which  they  were  finally  to  rule. 


134  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Christ  Church  during  the  darkest  times  had  preserved 
some  tradition  of  learning,  and  Balliol  and  Oriel  were 
among  the  first  to  awake  to  the  new  spirit.  The  scholar- 
ships at  Balliol  had  already  in  the  early  years  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  won  the  reputation  they  still  hold  of  being 
"theblue  ribbon  of  the  public  schools",  and  the  fellowships 
at  Oriel  were  for  half  a  century  at  least,  ranked  equally 
high.  The  elections  at  Oriel  brought  to  that  college  the 
band  of  men  who  initiated  and  carried  on  that  religious 
revival,  which  above  all  others  is  called  the  "Oxford 
Movement".  Certainly  no  other  "movement"  has  ever 
been  so  completely  associated  with  one  college.  Keble, 
the  author  of  "The  Christian  Year",  Pusey  who  gave  his 
name  to  the  Movement,  Bishop  Wilberforce  who  carried 
it  out  in  the  actual  life  of  the  Church,  R.  W.  Church  who 
was  elected  from  Wadham  in  1838,  afterwards  Dean  of 
St.  Paul's  and  historian  of  the  Movement,  and  greatest 
of  all,  Newman,  were  all  fellows  there.  It  was  in  their 
association  that  they  gained  their  strength,  and  for  that 
association  it  is  Oriel  that  rightly  claims  the  credit; 
though  the  glory  of  John  Keble  is  shared  by  Corpus,  and 
that  of  John  Henry  Newman  by  Trinity. 

Oriel  also  had  among  its  fellows  thinkers  of  quite  dif- 
ferent schools,  for  M.  Arnold  and  Clough,  the  poets  of 
doubt  and  religious  uncertainty,  were  both  elected 
from  Balliol;  and  Thomas  Hughes  went  out  from  Oriel 
to  preach  the  robust  Christianity  of  "Tom  Brown's 
Schooldays",  which  he  had  learned  from  Dr.  Arnold 
of  Rugby,  who  like  Keble  had  been  elected  from  Corpus; 
Hughes  had  been  greatly  influenced  too  by  the 
Broad  Church  views  of  Frederic  Denison  Maurice,  who 
was  a  fellow  of  Exeter.     It  is  natural  to  mention  the 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  155 

Oxford  Movement  first  in  speaking  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  it  is  only  one,  though  the  chief,  of 
the  religious  movements  which  have  centred  in  Oxford 
during  that  period.  It  has  remained  a  potent  force  in 
Oxford,  though  its  centre  passed  from  Oriel  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  century  to  Christ  Church;  the  names  of 
Liddon  and  Scott  Holland,  both  Senior  Students  (i.  e., 
fellows)  of  Christ  Church  stand  high  on  the  roll  of  Eng- 
lish preachers.  Later  on,  the  Lux  Mundi  School  of 
Theologians  had  their  centre  in  Keble  College,  founded  in 
1870  by  the  supporters  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  to 
honour  the  memory  of  Keble  and  to  do  something,  by 
means  of  a  common  life  for  undergraduates,  to  lessen  the 
cost  of  an  Oxford  education.  But  the  best  known  of  the 
Lux  Mundi  Theologians  was  Bishop  Gore,  who  had  been 
a  Scholar  of  Balliol  before  he  became  a  fellow  of  Trinity. 
At  Balliol  he  had  come  under  the  influence  of  T.  H. 
Green,  later  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy,  the  effect 
of  whose  teaching  was  very  great  in  Oxford,  alike  among 
the  theologians  and  among  the  philosophers,  during  the 
whole  of  the  late  Victorian  period. 

The  High  Church  Movement  is  by  no  means  the 
only  one  that  has  originated  in  the  colleges  of  nineteenth 
century  Oxford.  Just  after  Newman  had  left  Oxford 
and  joined  the  Church  of  Rome,  Richard  Congreve  re- 
turned from  Rugby  as  a  tutor  to  his  old  college  of  Wad- 
ham,  and  there  founded  the  school  of  English  Positivists. 
All  the  leading  members  of  that  little  band,  important 
out  of  all  proportion  to  their  numbers  in  both  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  political  sphere,  were  members  of  Wad- 
ham  together.  Frederic  Harrison  still  survives  to  fight 
with  unabated  vigour  for  the  causes  for  which  he  fought 
70  years  ago. 


136  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

If  any  Oxford  man  of  advancing  years  were  asked  what 
had  been  the  most  important  changes  at  Oxford  in  his 
time,  apart  from  the  admission  of  women  to  the  Univer- 
sity, he  would  almost  certainly  say  they  were  the  in- 
creased range  of  studies,  especially  in  the  direction  of 
the  Natural  Sciences,  the  increased  attention  to  research, 
and  the  increased  interest,  felt  by  graduates  and  by 
undergraduates  alike,  in  the  social  problems  of  the  day. 

The  development  of  Natural  Science  cannot  be 
associated  especially  with  any  college.  Of  necessity  its 
teaching,  involving  special  laboratories  and  expensive 
apparatus,  must  be  organised  from  the  centre  and  be- 
longs to  the  University  rather  than  to  the  special  col- 
leges. And  the  Oxford  habit,  whether  justified  or  not, 
of  passing  over  its  own  men  for  professorships  in  favour 
of  men  from  other  universities,  has  tended  still  further 
to  make  Science  a  non-college  study.  But  perhaps  three 
foundations  may  be  especially  mentioned  as  connected 
with  it.  Christ  Church  had  already  from  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  (and  still  has)  thanks  to  the  Lee 
benefaction,  an  endowment  of  its  own  for  teaching 
Natural  Science,  and  it  was  the  personal  influence  of  a 
Christ  Church  man.  Sir  Henry  Acland,  which  triumphed 
over  opposition  and  secured  the  erection  of  the  New 
Museum.  He  had  the  unexpected  support  of  Dr.  Pusey 
and  John  Ruskin,  both  Christ  Church  men  (though  Rus- 
kin  migrated  later,  as  he  himself  quaintly  said,  from 
the  "house  of  Christ"  to  the  "body  of  Christ" — Corpus 
Christi).  Exeter  College  had  the  distinction  of  having 
among  its  fellows  two  of  the  most  distinguished  of  recent 
Oxford  Science  professors,  H.  M.  Moseley  and  Sir  E. 
Ray   Lankester,    the   latter   having   been   originally    a 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  137 

Junior  Student  of  Christ  Church.  It  had  already 
earlier  in  the  century  had  among  its  members,  Sir 
Charles  Lyell,  the  founder  of  modern  Geology,  who  had 
gained  his  first  interest  in  the  subject  from  the  lectures  of 
Dr.  Buckland  of  Christ  Church.  Magdalen  College 
has  generously  employed  its  great  wealth  to  aid  the 
Science  work  of  the  University;  five  of  the  Science  pro- 
fessors are  supported  by  it,  while  it  contributes  largely 
to  the  rsaintenance  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  which  lies 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  High  Street.  A  Magdalen 
Science  professor.  Dr.  Sherrington,  has  just  brought  once 
more  to  Oxford  the  highest  of  British  scientific  honours, 
the  presidency  of  the  Royal  Society. 

The  development  of  Research  in  Oxford  has  been 
perhaps  especially  marked  in  the  field  of  Archaeology. 
Sir  Arthur  Evans  has  been  already  mentioned.  Almost 
equally  famous  is  Sir  William  Ramsay  of  St.  John's  who 
has  rediscovered  Asia  Minor  and  routed  the  "higher 
critics"  of  St.  Luke.  And  the  name  of  Professor  Sayce  of 
Queen's  must  not  be  forgotten,  who  has  lived  to  see  his 
archaeological  discoveries,  once  laughed  at,  become  part 
of  the  accepted  foundations  of  the  Ancient  History  of  the 
Near  East. 

But  the  work  of  the  archaeologist  as  a  rule  appeals  to 
few;  the  problems  of  wealth  and  poverty  touch  every 
section  of  the  nation.  The  good  Lord  Shaftesbury,  the 
pioneer  in  Factory  Legislation,  the  Founder  of  the 
Ragged  School  Movement,  who  was  a  first-class  man  in 
1822  from  Christ  Church,  was  only  an  isolated  figure, 
great  though  his  influence  was;  the  need  for  the  in- 
telligent study  of  economic  problems,  and  the  duty  of 
the  universities  to  all  classes  of  the  community  were  the 


138  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

message  of  Samuel  Barnett  of  Wadham  (coming  up  in 
1862)  and  Arnold  Toynbee  of  Balliol.  The  premature 
death  of  the  latter  made  the  most  important  part  of  his 
influence  to  be  the  inspiration  of  his  name;  but  Canon 
Barnett  maintained  for  a  whole  generation  the  closest 
relations  with  Oxford,  and  devised  and  carried  out  the 
"settlement"  of  Toynbee  Hall,  which  has  been  imitated  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  His  own  college  is  commemo- 
rated in  the  first  hall  of  residence  for  students,  "Wadham 
Hair,  built  in  East  London.  He  himself  has  a  permanent 
memorial  in  Oxford  in  Barnett  House,  a  centre  of  con- 
tinually growing  importance  for  Social  Study,  which 
owed  its  existence  especially  to  Sidney  Ball,  Fellow  of 
St.  John's,  one  of  Oxford's  younger  pioneers  in  Social 
movements,  unfortunately  cut  off  just  when  his  in- 
fluence was  greatest. 

So  far  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  mention  the  more 
important  of  the  "movements"  with  which  the  name  of 
Oxford  has  been  especially  associated,  and  to  connect 
them  with  the  colleges  to  which  their  most  important 
promoters  belonged ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  great  names  of  Oxford  have  been  men- 
tioned, and  that  some  even  of  the  first  rank  have  been 
passed  over. 

This  was  inevitable,  for  the  man  of  letters  is  an  indi- 
vidualist whose  genius  often  works  by  itself,  and  does  not 
join  in  "movements".  This  may  explain  why  Cambridge, 
the  mother  of  England's  greatest  poets  (except  Shake- 
speare), has  not  affected  the  general  life  of  England  as  Ox- 
ford has  done.  At  all  events,  in  spite  of  the  splendid 
compliment  to  Oxford  paid  by  the  renegade  Cantab, 
Dryden,  when  in  1681  he  was  fighting  the  battle  of  the 
Court  against  the  Exclusion  Bill  and  The  Whigs, 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  139 

Thebes  did  his  green  unknowing  youth  engage, 
He  chooses  Athens  in  his  riper  age, 

Oxford  has  to  confess  that  at  all  events  till  the  last  half 
century,  she  has  not  had  her  share  of  the  poets.  Yet 
some  few  may  be  mentioned,  in  addition  to  those  whose 
names  have  already  been  introduced. 

If  Oxford  cannot  claim  the  greatest  of  the  Elizabethans, 
Shakespeare,  Marlowe,  Spenser  and  Bacon,  of  whom  the 
last  three  were  at  Cambridge,  yet  she  trained  at  Christ 
Church  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  whose  life  was  a  poem  even 
more  perfect  than  his  works,  and  she  had  her  full  share  of 
the  minor  dramatists;  Beaumont  was  at  Broadgates 
Hall,  Ford  was  at  Exeter,  Lodge  at  Trinity,  Lyly  at 
Magdalen,  Marston  at  Brasenose,  Shirley  at  St.  John's; 
it  may  be  noted  as  not  unnatural,  that  several  of  these 
poets  never  succeeded  in  getting  a  degree.  The  poet 
preacher  John  Donne,  whose  reputation  has  varied  more 
from  century  to  century  than  that  of  any  other  English 
writer,  was  at  Hart  Hall,  though  he  finally  took  his  degree 
at  Cambridge,  and  Henry  Vaughan,  the  Silurist,  was  at 
Jesus.  The  poets  of  the  eighteenth  century  are  not  now 
much  accounted  of,  but  at  the  end  of  that  century  Oxford 
began  to  produce  an  abundant  crop  of  (at  any  rate)  minor 
poets.  Southey,  certainly  not  a  "minor"  poet  in  output, 
whatever  be  thought  of  his  merit,  was  at  Balliol,  while  in 
Dean  Milman  and  Bishop  Heber  Brasenose  claims  two  of 
our  greatest  hymn  writers.  And  in  Victorian  days,  besides 
Matthew  Arnold  and  Clough  already  mentioned,  Swin- 
burne was  at  Balliol  and  William  Morris  at  Exeter;  his 
connection  with  that  college  is  commemorated  in  its 
Chapel  by  the  glorious  tapestry  of  "The  Visit  of  the 
Magi",  worked  by  him  from  the  designs  of  his  college 


140  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

friend  Burne-Jones.  Nor  should  Robert  Montgomery  be 
forgotten  who,  thanks  to  Macaulay's  review,  is  the 
strongest  candidate  among  English  poets  for  "the  wooden 
spoon";  Macaulay  must  have  enjoyed  "smashing"  him  all 
the  more,  because  he  was  an  Oxford  "poet";  he  had  been 
at  Lincoln,  and  wrote  one  of  his  worst  poems  on  Oxford 
itself.  Among  present  day  Oxford  poets  must  at  least 
be  mentioned  Robert  Bridges,  Poet  Laureate,  who  was 
at  Corpus. 

It  is  natural  to  pass  from  poets  to  essayists,  and  to 
mention  first  the  name  of  Sir  Richard  Steele,  the  friend  of 
Addison,  who,  like  a  good  Whig,  was  at  Merton,  always  a 
Whig  college  in  the  seventeenth  century;  he  presented  his 
"Tatler"  to  the  College  Library,  according  to  the  good 
old  rule  of  filial  piety,  which  all  Oxford  authors  should 
follow,  though  too  many  do  not.  Sir  Thomas  Browne  and 
Walter  Savage  Landor,  though  not  essayists,  may  be 
grouped  with  this  class;  the  most  literary  of  our  physi- 
cians was  at  Broadgates  Hall  at  the  time  when  it  became 
Pembroke  College,  and  the  most  irritable  of  our  stylists 
quarrelled  with  his  neighbours  and  was  sent  down  from 
Trinity,  just  as  he  quarrelled  with  most  people  in  later 
life.  More  genuine  essayists  in  the  ordinary  sense  were 
Francis  Jeffery,  the  editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  its 
greatest  days,  who  was  at  Queen's;  his  staunch  sup- 
porter Sydney  Smith,  the  witty  Whig  canon  of  St.  Paul's, 
who  did  something  to  redeem  New  College  from  the  com- 
fortable obscurity  in  which  it  rested  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries;  and  above  all  the  "English 
Opium  Eater",  De  Quincey,  who  was  at  Worcester.  Per- 
haps, too,  mention  should  be  made  of  the  versatile  An- 
drew Lang,  poet  and  anthropologist,  critic  and  journal- 
ist, who  was  elected  from  Balliol  to  Merton. 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  141 

The  English  novelists  mainly  did  not  come  from  the 
University,  and  the  greatest  name  that  Oxford  can  pro- 
duce is  that  of  Charles  Reade,  who  was  for  many  years  a 
fellow  of  Magdalen.  The  names  of  Quiller  Couch  and 
A.  E.  W.  Mason,  who  were  at  Trinity,  have  not  yet  the 
"enchantment  lent  by  distance  to  the  view". 

In  pure  letters  then  it  may  be  admitted  that  despite 
the  great  names  of  Addison,  Johnson,  and  Shelley,  Oxford 
does  not  claim  many  writers  of  the  very  highest  rank. 
But  in  what  may  be  called  "applied  letters",  she  more 
than  holds  her  own.  Philosophy  in  all  its  branches  has 
always  been  Oxford's  special  study.  Some  of  the  greatest 
schoolmen,  e.g.,  Duns  Scotus  and  William  of  Ockhara 
belong  to  her ;  but  they  lived  in  the  pre-college  period,  and 
Merton's  claim  to  Duns  Scotus  is  about  as  unauthentic 
as  the  portrait  of  him  that  hangs  in  the  College  Hall — it 
is  impossible  to  say  more.  The  two  great  leaders  in 
philosophic  thought  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Hobbes 
and  Locke,  were  both  Oxford  men,  Hobbes  at  Magdalen 
Hall,  Locke  at  Christ  Church ;  the  philosophic  champion 
of  Whig  political  doctrine  resided  for  years  at  the  latter 
college,  from  which  he  was  finally  expelled  by  a  cringing 
subservience  to  the  royal  mandate  of  Charles  H.  A  still 
greater  name  is  that  of  Joseph  Butler  who  came  up  to 
Oriel  in  1715,  and  there  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
future  Lord  Chancellor,  Talbot,  which  secured  for  the 
greatest  of  English  moral  philosophers  that  opening  in  the 
Church  which  his  own  merit  might  easily  have  failed  to 
obtain.  Later  on  in  the  century.  Bishop  Berkeley,  though 
not  an  Oxford  man,  retired  there  to  die  and  is  buried 
in  Christ  Church.  Other  eighteenth  century  philosophers 
are  Adam  Smith,  who  is  the  most  eminent  of  the  many 


142  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

able  Scotchmen  whom  the  Snell  foundation  has  sent  from 
Glasgow  to  Balliol,  and  Jeremy  Bentham,  who  a  little 
later  came  up  to  Queen's;  but  it  must  be  confessed  that 
he  speaks  of  his  Alma  Mater  almost  as  bitterly  as  Gibbon 
himself.  The  philosophic  school  of  Professor  Green  has 
already  been  mentioned;  it  had  its  centre  in  Balliol 
under  the  famous  Master,  Benjamin  Jowett,  who,  if 
he  were  not  himself  among  the  philosophers,  may  fairly 
rank  as  one,  for  he  has  made  the  greatest  of  Greek  philoso- 
phers, Plato,  an  English  classic. 

History  like  Philosophy  belongs  to  applied  literature, 
though  perhaps  the  most  modern  school  of  historians 
would  deny  that  History  had  anything  at  all  to  do  with 
Literature,  and  so  would  make  light  of  men  whom  Oxford 
at  all  events  claims  as  distinguished  in  that  branch  of 
learning.  The  world  is  likely  to  agree  with  Oxford  against 
the  specialist,  and  to  give  the  praise  of  being  historians 
to  Freeman  who  was  at  Trinity  and  to  his  great  rival, 
Froude  who  was  at  Oriel,  both  in  succession  Regius  Pro- 
fessors of  History.  Freeman  sat  at  the  scholars'  table 
at  Trinity  with  his  predecessor  in  the  History  Pro- 
fessorship, William  Stubbs,  and  from  the  same  table  some 
15  years  later  Lord  Bryce  was  elected  to  a  fellowship  at 
Oriel,  while  about  the  same  time  A.  V.  Dicey,  equally 
eminent  with  him  as  publicist  and  as  historian,  was 
elected  fellow  at  Trinity. 

But  it  is  for  the  practical  walks  of  life  that  Oxford  has 
especially  trained  her  sons.  Lawyers  and  statesmen, 
both  lay  and  ecclesiastical,  it  is  these  especially  whom 
Oxford  claims. 

To  mention  briefly  the  Church  first,  three  of  the  last 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury  have  been  Oxford  men,  two 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  143 

of  them  from  Balliol,  a  college  which  might  easily  have 
had  a  third  in  Manning,  had  he  not  left  the  English 
Church,  and  so  won  the  Cardinal's  purple  while  he  lost 
the  chair  of  St.  Augustine. 

Next  in  precedence  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
comes  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  there  must  be  few  of  the 
colleges  of  Oxford  which  have  not  sent  at  least  one  son  to 
the  Woolsack.  Of  the  Whig  Chancellors  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  first  Lord  Shaftesbury,  the  "Achito- 
phel"  who  extorted  from  Dryden  the  unwilling  praise 

the  statesman  we  abhor  but  praise  the  judge, 

was  at  Exeter,  and  in  the  next  generation  the  great  Lord 
Somers  was  at  Trinity.  Of  the  opposite  school  the 
typical  Tory,  Lord  Eldon,  was  at  University,  where  he 
had  been  preceded  by  his  brother,  Lord  Stowell,  still  more 
distinguished  as  a  jurist,  the  founder  of  Modern  Naval 
Prize  Law.  Though  he  never  reached  the  Woolsack,  Lord 
Mansfield  of  Christ  Church  ranks  among  the  very  great- 
est of  English  lawyers,  and  local  patriotism  may  justify 
me  in  specially  mentioning  Lord  Birkenhead,  Wadham's 
second  Lord  Chancellor. 

As  for  Prime  Ministers  and  Governors  General  of 
India,  Christ  Church  alone  had  nine  of  the  former  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  including  George  Canning,  the  co- 
founder  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and 
W.  E.  Gladstone,  while  the  same  foundation  has  sent 
eight  of  its  sons  to  rule  India,  among  them  the  greatest  of 
all  British  "Imperial  Proconsuls",  Lord  Wellesley.  And 
Balliol  has  rivalled  Christ  Church  in  recent  years  in 
giving  to  the  public  service,  H.  H.  Asquith,  Lord  Curzon, 
Lord  Milner  and  Lord  Grey  of  Fallodon,  not  to  mention 


144  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  late  Sir  Cecil  Spring  Rice,  who  represented  Great 
Britain  at  Washington  during  the  critical  years  of  the 
Great  War. 

To  write  of  the  great  men  of  Oxford  as  a  whole  is  a 
hopeless  task.  The  list  must  of  necessity  be  incomplete, 
and  tends  to  be  a  mere  catalogue  of  names.  But  in  each 
college  the  memory  of  those  who  have  gone  before  is  an 
ever  present  inspiration,  kept  before  men's  minds  by  the 
collections  of  portraits  which  hang  in  every  college  hall; 
that  of  Christ  Church  is  unique:  there 

England's  greatest  deck  the  wall, 
Prelate  and  statesman,  prince  and  poet, 
Who  hath  an  ear  let  him  hear  them  call. 

This  is  true  in  a  less  degree  of  every  college.  The  glorious 
past  merges  in  the  happy  present,  to  give  young  men 
those  surroundings  which  England  holds  her  best  educa- 
tional gift. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  indicate  the  past  of  each 
college;  but  what  of  their  present  state?  Here  it  may  be 
said  that  a  practical  dilemma  confronts  any  one  who 
would  attempt  to  describe  colleges  as  they  are.  Either 
he  is  a  member  of  the  college  himself,  and  so  his  testi- 
mony is  suspect  of  partiality  (and  besides  who  can  write 
intimately  of  the  intimate  concerns  of  what  is  really  a 
great  family?),  or  he  is  an  outsider,  and  cannot  really 
know  what  goes  on  within  the  walls  of  another  founda- 
tion. And  there  is  another  and  obvious  difficulty  in 
describing  present-day  colleges;  they  are  not  historical 
specimens,  but  living  and  growing  institutions,  and  their 
tone  and  temper  change  from  generation  to  generation, 
and  even  from  year  to  year. 

Yet  perhaps  one  or  two  broad  features  may  be  indi- 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  145 

cated  as  specially  marking  certain  colleges.  There  was  a 
period,  not  so  very  long  ago,  when  it  might  have  been 
said  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  the  sons  of  the 
English  House  of  Lords  went  to  Christ  Church ;  of  course 
even  in  those  days  men  of  the  highest  birth  were  found 
elsewhere;  but  it  would  have  been  true  to  claim  that  the 
majority  of  the  "Tufts"  (peers'  sons  then  wore  a  special 
cap)  were  to  be  found  at  the  "House".  Probably  Christ 
Church  still  has  more  of  this  class  than  any  other  founda- 
tion, but  Balliol,  New  College  and  Magdalen,  not  to 
mention  other  colleges,  have  undoubtedly  attracted 
considerable  numbers  of  them.  Edward  VH  was  once 
an  undergraduate  at  Christ  Church  and  the  present 
Prince  of  Wales  was  at  Magdalen. 

Again  a  marked  distinction  which  would  be  broadly 
recognised  in  Oxford,  is  that  certain  colleges  are  "public 
school  colleges".  The  line  is  almost  as  indeterminate  as 
that  which  marks  off  the  "public  schools"  themselves. 
Properly  speaking  in  England  any  school  that  is  not  the 
property  of  an  individual  or  a  family,  but  has  its  own 
body  of  governors,  its  traditions,  and  (probably)  some 
old  endowments,  is  a  "public  school";  but  the  name  is 
often  confined  to  some  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  more  con- 
spicuous schools  of  this  class.  While  in  America  a 
"public  school"  is  the  name  rightly  given  to  the  schools 
provided  for  and  open  to  all,  in  England  the  name  tends 
to  belong  to  the  schools  for  the  boys  of  one  class  only. 
Which  are,  however,  the  "public  schools"  in  this  sense 
would  be  warmly  disputed,  so  far  as  regards  the  lower 
limit,  though  all  would  agree  that  certain  schools  were 
undoubtedly  "public". 

So  with  regard  to  colleges.    There  is  certainly  no  col- 


146  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

lege  in  Oxford  where  public  school  men  in  the  strictest 
sense  are  not  to  be  found ;  there  is  no  college  which  has  a 
position  of  admitted  superiority,  and  there  are  no  col- 
leges which  do  not  from  time  to  time  have  some  of  the 
best  men,  whatever  standard  of  "best"  be  adopted. 

But  speaking  generally  it  may  be  said  that  University, 
Oriel,  Brasenose  and  Trinity,^  in  addition  to  the  four 
colleges  mentioned  above  as  the  special  colleges  of  the 
English  aristocracy,  are  the  "public  school"  colleges  of 
Oxford. 

And  this  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  athletic  side 
of  college  life,  a  side  which  plays  so  large  a  part  in  Ox- 
ford's view  of  itself  and  in  the  views  held  about  it  by  the 
world  outside.  The  English  public  schools  are  the  great 
maintainers  of  the  athletic  traditions  of  the  country, 
and  hence  those  colleges  which  draw  most  from  them, 
have  as  a  rule  the  greatest  athletic  reputation.  This  of 
course  varies  in  the  different  fields.  In  rowing,  pre- 
eminently the  Oxford  sport,  which  gives  a  permanent 
and  tangible  memorial  of  success  in  the  headship  of  the 
river,  three  colleges  certainly  at  present  are  prominent. 
New  College,  Magdalen  and  Christ  Church.  Eton  has  a 
place  among  rowing  schools  to  which  "nihil  est  simile  aut 
secundum",  and  the  college  to  which  the  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  Eton  eight  go,  will  always  be  high,  if  not 
highest,  on  the  river.  It  is  rather  sad  to  see  how  speciali- 
zation here  as  elsewhere  tends  to  destroy  much  of  the 
interest  of  athletics.  Half  a  century  ago  and  even  more 
recently,  any  man  of  weight,  pluck  and  good  lungs  could 
expect  to  be  made  a  good  oar,  and  might  aspire  to  the 

'  Colleges  here  and  elsewhere,  when  mentioned  together,  are  put  in 
their  chronological  order. 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  147 

coveted  rowing  "blue".  Now  it  is  very  rare  for  a  man 
to  get  his  seat  in  the  University  eight  who  has  not  been 
trained  at  one  of  the  rowing  schools,  and  Eton  will 
probably  furnish  each  year  about  half  the  crews  of  the 
rival  Universities.  And  this  of  course  has  another  effect; 
it  is  much  harder  for  a  man  to  learn  rowing  at  Oxford 
than  it  used  to  be ;  if  the  trained  oars  are  concentrated  in 
a  few  colleges,  obviously  the  river  "coaching"  at  places 
outside  the  circle  of  that  few,  will  suffer.  Colleges  are 
kind  to  each  other  and  lend  their  "blues",  but  they  can- 
not inspire  in  those  they  lend  the  devoted  interest  in 
their  rowing  pupils  which  has  made  the  lives  of  many 
men  in  Oxford  centre  in  attempts  to  improve  their  own 
college  boat;  "Miller"  of  "Tom  Brown  at  Oxford"  is  a 
much  rarer  type  than  of  old. 

No  other  sport  is  so  specialized  as  rowing,  and  the 
cricket  blues  are  far  more  distributed  now  than  they 
were  fifty  years  ago,  when  Brasenose  had  eight  men  in 
the  Oxford  eleven  for  two  years  in  succession.  Here 
Oriel  certainly  must  be  mentioned  as  a  college  with  a 
cricket  reputation  equal  to  any,  superior  to  almost  all. 
Cricket,  however,  is  fortunately  an  art  which  can  be 
learned  on  a  village  green  as  well  as  on  a  public  school 
"big  side",  if  the  future  player  has  that  genius  for  the 
game  without  which  no  first-class  cricketer  can  be  made. 
Football,  in  both  its  kinds,  is  even  more  democratic,  and 
here  undoubtedly  Queen's  and  St.  John's  must  be  added 
to  the  list  of  the  athletic  colleges.  The  sturdy  sons  of  the 
North,  whom  hereditary  connection  and  well  placed  en- 
dowments always  bring  to  Queen's  in  large  numbers,  have 
the  tradition  of  Rugby  football  strong  in  them.  Of  ath- 
letics in  the  strict  sense,  i.e.,  of  "track  racing"  and  jump- 


148  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

ing,  etc.,  It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  much;  they,  Hke 
golf  and  lawn  tennis,  depend  more  on  the  performance  of 
the  individual  than  on  team  work.  Hence  it  does  not 
matter  so  much  for  these  sports  to  what  college  a  man 
goes,  or  what  school  he  comes  from.  If  he  can  do  the 
Quarter  in  "level  time"  or  clear  five  feet  eight  inches  in 
the  High  Jump,  he  is  sure  of  recognition ;  his  performance 
is  known  to  all  and  is  itself  sufificient  to  bring  him  out ;  he 
does  not  need  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  captain  of 
the  University  football  team. 

And  this  fact  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  choice 
of  a  college.  This  is  too  often  made  on  an  absolute  rule 
as  if  of  necessity  that  college  which  was  best  for  one 
man,  was  best  for  all.  It  certainly  is  not  so.  This  is  true 
of  other  matters  as  well  as  of  sports,  of  debating  and  liter- 
ary societies  as  well  as  of  athletic  clubs.  But  it  is  easiest 
to  illustrate  it  from  the  latter  class  of  societies.  A  man 
naturally  wants  to  make  the  most  of  his  Oxford  career, 
and  he  may  especially  hope  to  distinguish  or  at  least  to 
develop  himself  on  his  athletic  side.  If  he  be  really  good, 
one  (to  use  a  colloquialism)  "in  the  running  for  a  blue", 
he  will  do  well  to  go,  if  he  can  get  admittance,  to  one  of 
the  athletic  colleges ;  he  will  there  get  to  know  the  men 
who  have  the  disposal  of  these  coveted  honours.  But  if 
he  be  only  an  ordinary  performer  in  some  line  of  sport,  no 
matter  what,  with  neither  hopes  nor  desires  to  "represent 
his  University",  he  will  do  well  to  choose  one  of  the 
smaller  or  less  athletic  colleges;  gifts  that  would  be  not 
wanted,  and  so  might  be  ignored  at  a  college  rich  in 
"blues",  would  be  valued  and  given  full  scope  elsewhere. 
And  as  has  been  said  before,  he  will  meet  good  men  every- 
where;  no  college  in  Oxford  Is  permanently  "out  of  It", 


COLLEGES  OF  OXFORD  149 

as  is  said  to  be  the  case  with  some  foundations  in  other 
universities. 

This  has  a  bearing  also,  that  perhaps  might  not  be 
expected,  on  a  man's  college  life  as  a  whole.  Since  young 
Englishmen  are  what  they  are,  they  learn  to  know  each 
other  most  easily  by  playing  together.  A  little  athletic 
skill  has  given  many  men  their  chance.  An  Oxford  col- 
lege in  some  ways  is  the  most  democratic  of  communities ; 
it  values  a  man  for  what  he  is,  and  not  for  what  he  has; 
but  a  small  trick  of  manner,  an  unusual  accent,  a  pecu- 
liarity of  dress  may  prevent  a  man  being  known  at  first ; 
if  he  is  at  all  athletic,  he  gets  in  a  small  college  a  chance  of 
showing  what  he  really  is.  And  then  men  ignore  the 
small  peculiarities  which  made  them  at  first  stand  off. 

But  important  as  athletics  are  in  a  young  man's  life, 
the  object  of  a  university  is  to  train  the  intellect.  And 
here  it  may  certainly  be  asserted  that  Balliol  has  been 
for  the  last  half  century  and  more,  the  leading  college, 
at  any  rate,  as  judged  by  the  result  of  examination  tests; 
this  is  especially  the  case  in  the  old  traditional  classical 
schools.  New  College  and  Corpus,  Trinity  and  St. 
John's  sometimes  carry  off  the  Hertford  or  the  Ireland 
Scholarships,  but  Balliol  can  almost  "play  the  field"  in 
the  competition  for  these.  It  would  hardly  be  said, 
however,  that  its  superiority  was  equally  great  in  other 
departments  of  learning;  here  honours  are  much  more 
evenly  distributed.  There  is  comparatively  little 
specialization  in  subjects  at  the  Oxford  colleges;  but 
Science  naturally  is  most  cultivated  in  those  places  where 
special  facilities  exist  for  its  study,  and  Queen's,  Magda- 
len, Christ  Church,  Balliol,  and  Jesus  have  well  equipped 
laboratories  of  their  own. 


150  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Fifty  years  ago  a  man  received  his  instruction  in 
Oxford  almost  entirely  within  the  walls  of  his  own  college; 
now  the  lectures  everywhere  are  open  to  all.  But  it  is  the 
tutorial  system  which  gives  the  individual  intercourse  and 
personal  influence  which  count  for  so  much  in  Oxford 
education,  and  this  a  college  furnishes.  Of  this,  how- 
ever, it  is  impossible  to  speak  generally;  he  who  would 
know  what  a  college  tutor  is  worth  can  only  learn  it 
from  his  pupils,  and  by  no  means  always  from  them. 

To  become  a  real  partaker  in  the  life  of  a  college  is  per- 
haps as  happy  a  lot  as  ever  falls  to  a  young  man.  It  gives 
freedom  but  not  too  much,  it  gives  beautiful  surround- 
ings, it  blends,  as  has  been  said,  the  inspiration  of  a  great 
past  with  the  keen  interest  of  the  present.  Above  all  a 
man  by  entering  an  Oxford  college  becomes  a  member  of 
a  society  eager  to  appreciate  his  successes,  ready  to  sym- 
pathize with  his  disappointments.  As  in  a  room  full 
of  mirrors,  every  object  is  indefinitely  repeated,  so  in 
the  life  of  a  college  a  man's  own  life  is  intensified.  One 
prominent  in  his  college  has  power  but  not  too  much, 
responsibility  that  is  not  crushing,  opportunities  of  suc- 
cess in  many  fields.  Who  can  wonder  that  to  many  men 
their  college  years  are  the  happiest  period  of  their 
existence,  when  there  are  round  them 

Strong  affections  binding  fast 

The  flying  terms  with  links  of  gold. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  AT  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

By  R.  P.  Coffin,  B.Litt.,  Maine  and  Trinity,  'i6 

Know  you  her  secret  none  can  utter, 
Hers  of  the  Book,  the  tripled  Crown, 

Still  on  the  spire  the  pigeons  flutter, 
Still  by  the  gateway  flits  the  gown; 

Still  on  the  street,  from  corbel  and  gutter 
Faces  of  stone  look  down. 

Yet  if  at  length  you  seek  her,  prove  her. 
Lean  to  her  whispers  never  so  nigh ; 

Yet  if  at  last  not  less  her  lover 

You  in  your  hansom  leave  the  High; 

Down  from  her  towers  a  ray  shall  hover — 
Touch  you,  a  passer-by. 

The  colleges  of  Oxford  have  empty  niches  in  their 
walls.  So  also  the  life  of  the  University  of  colleges  ofifers 
niches  for  men  of  every  sort — scholastic,  athletic, 
literary,  artistic,  political,  musical,  or  merely  normal. 
Whatever  your  gifts,  your  views  or  your  tastes,  there  is 
here  a  place  to  display  them,  and  probably  some  one  to 
appreciate. 

As  the  University  is  primarily  a  group  of  colleges,  you 
will  find  at  the  outset  of  your  undergraduate  career,  that 


152  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  main  path  to  your  desired  niche  will  lie  through  your 
college.  Social  life  will  at  first  probably  be  nearly  synony- 
mous with  college  life, — at  least  until  you  have  found 
friends  beyond  your  own  gate  and  walls.  After  you  have 
doffed  the  gown,  cap,  white  tie,  and  dark  suit  of  matricu- 
lation, and  put  away  the  Latin  certificate  between  the 
leaves  of  your  Excerpta  e  Statutis,  you  will  live  principally 
in  and  with  your  college.  Even  in  "Schools" — at  the  end 
of  your  university  career — you  will  be  upholding  the 
scholastic  prestige  of  your  college.  As  in  America  the 
undergraduate  glorifies  his  fraternity  by  excelling  in 
college  studies  or  sports,  so  in  Oxford  he  glorifies  his 
college  in  winning  a  "blue"  or  in  taking  a  "First". 

Within  the  college,  social  life  (so  far  as  it  is  organized) 
centres  mainly  in  various  clubs  or  societies — informal 
bodies  having  no  special  rooms,  and  meeting  now  and 
then  in  the  rooms  of  the  members.  Every  college  has  its 
debating  society,  with  frequent  meetings  for  debates 
which  often  call  forth  speakers  with  an  astonishing 
amount  of  wit  and  fluency  in  discussing  general  subjects 
of  wide  variety.  Then  there  is  commonly  a  literary  club^- 
whose  members  read  papers  on  Crashaw,  Swinburne, 
Casanova,  Butler,  Poe,  or  other  men  of  silver.  After  the 
paper,  a  general  discussion  will  follow  in  which  men  just 
out  of  their  teens  become  as  confidently  critical  as  a 
middle-aged  reviewer.  Some  other  college  clubs  are 
frankly  convivial  only,  flockings  of  birds  of  a  feather  who 
delight  in  eating  and  drinking  well.  There  may  be  a 
religious  or  theological  society,  where  points  of  dogma  are 
debated  as  realities.  Men  of  different  political  beliefs — 
and  with  the  English  undergraduate  politics  go  deeper 
than   with   the   American — band    together   in   different 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  153 

associations.  Those  musically  inclined  may  meet  at  def- 
inite times  and  places,  to  the  discomfiture  of  their  neigh- 
bors. Men  of  law  combine  in  moot  clubs.  An  Oxford 
undergraduate  will  scarcely  find  another  person  also  en- 
thusiastically interested  in  the  things  he  himself  likes, 
before — presto — there  is  a  club,  with  a  president, 
secretary-treasurer,  and  minutes!  The  love  of  talk,  and 
especially  of  witty  talk,  is  strong.  And  of  an  evening 
when  clubs  are  not  meeting,  your  rooms  will  like  as  not 
be  full  of  friends,  who  love  to  smoke  your  tobacco  and 
keep  you  from  your  books. 

Moving  from  the  college  world  to  the  larger  social 
group  of  the  University  of  which  it  forms  but  a  part,  you 
will  again  find  social  activities  chiefly  gathered  about 
more  and  larger  clubs  and  associations.  These  range 
from  the  Union — embracing  more  than  lialf  the  Univer- 
sity and  supporting  a  large  and  luxurious  establishment — 
to  small  and  casual  groups  of  congenial  or  loquacious 
spirits  meeting  now  and  then  for  a  dinner,  or  a  discus- 
sion, in  one  another's  rooms. 

The  Union — the  most  famous  of  all  University  asso- 
ciations— was  founded  early  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Although  at  times  in  its  history  it  has  tended  to  be  exclu- 
sive, the  main  interest  of  the  Society  has  always  been 
forensic.  For  many  decades  now  it  has  been  open  to  all 
who  care  to  join,  and  its  aim  has  been  to  provide  place  and 
opportunity  for  airing  political  views.  There  are  weekly 
debates  throughout  the  year,  mainly  on  political  ques- 
tions. Members  present  vote  upon  the  question,  and 
their  verdict  is  reported  in  the  newspapers  of  London  and 
the  provinces.  Many  men  who  lead  the  political  and 
diplomatic  destinies  of  the  Empire  received  a  first  lesson 


154  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

of  confidence  and  debating  skill  in  the  Union — among 
such  have  been  Asquith  and  Lord  Bryce.  The  un- 
dergraduate debaters  display  considerable  finish  and 
style,  and  the  proceedings  of  the  evening  are  conducted 
in  a  dignified,  or  even  pretentious  manner,  in  a  large  hall 
arranged  like  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  prominent  men  of  the  nation — from  ex-Prime  Min- 
isters and  Cabinet  members  to  Labour  M.P.'s,  feel  it 
worth  their  while  to  address  the  Union  in  debate.  Lloyd 
George  himself,  in  the  pre-war  days  when  he  was  thought 
a  fit  target  for  a  Conservative  carrot,  has  pounded  its 
despatch-box  with  ministerial  vigor.  Probably  the 
greatest  undergraduate  honour  is  to  be  chosen  president 
of  the  Union.  Americans  are  proud  to  remember  that 
two  of  their  number  have  already  achieved  this  distinc- 
tion.^ The  Society  has  a  set  of  buildings  and  grounds 
just  off  Cornmarket  Street,  where  are  the  debating 
hall,  an  excellent  reading  and  reference  library  of  more 
than  50,000  volumes,  periodical,  billiard  and  dining 
rooms. 

Debating  and  public  discussion  is  not  only  the  princi- 
pal interest  of  the  Union — it  is  one  of  the  chief  and 
most  popular  activities  of  the  undergraduate  Univer- 
sity. Indeed  the  amount  of  more  or  less  formal  argu- 
mentation at  Oxford,  all  done  voluntarily  as  a  pleasure 
and  intellectual  sport,  astounds  the  American  student. 
Debating  in  American  universities  too  often  is  a  tedious 
artificial  exercise  in  facts  and  figures,  confined  to  a 
handful  of  overstudious  or  otherwise  abnormal  under- 
graduates, and  ignored  or  looked  down  upon  by  the  vast 

1  W.  J.  Bland,  Ohio  and  Lincoln,  1910;  killed  inaction,  1918:  and  R. 
M.  Corson,  Michigan  and  Oriel,  1918. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  155 

majority.  Instruction  in  debating  and  the  fostering  of 
"debating  teams"  have  not  materially  altered  this  atti- 
tude. In  Oxford,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  no  instruction ; 
there  are  no  debating  teams  and  no  prize  speaking  con- 
tests, but  scores  of  good  and  hundreds  of  mediocre  de- 
baters. The  Oxford  test  of  good  debating  is  not  the 
precise  presentation  of  facts  and  figures,  but  the  original 
and  clever  expression  of  ideas.  An  epigram  outweighs 
the  encyclopedia.  Union  debates  are  reported  and  criti- 
cized in  detail  by  the  University  weeklies;  the  clever 
speakers  win  their  way  to  fame  and  popularity.  Be- 
cause of  this  interest  one  hears  more  of  genuine  public 
argument  and  of  keen,  witty,  and  graceful  speaking  by 
undergraduates  than  in  our  American  universities. 

One  of  the  most  important  societies — the  British- 
American  Club — has  been  born  since  the  war.  The 
Master  of  Balliol,  a  tireless  worker  for  harmony  between 
America  and  England,  was  its  sponsor,  and  is  its  per- 
manent president.  The  Club's  purpose  is  to  promote 
mutual  understanding  and  friendship  between  the  two 
nations.  Membership  is  limited  to  300,  and  is  divided 
about  equally  between  Englishmen,  Americans,  and  men 
from  the  overseas  dominions  of  the  Empire.  Large  pub- 
lic meetings,  addressed  by  prominent  workers  for  inter- 
national amity,  are  held  terminally.  Besides  these,  and 
perhaps  more  important,  are  the  groups  in  which  men 
interested  in  special  matters  such  as  international  law, 
educational  schemes,  labor  conditions,  international 
finance,  etc.,  meet  frequently  for  discussion.  In  Oxford 
there  are  so  many  men  who  can  speak  with  authority 
upon  these  timely  topics  that  the  Club  has  exceptional 
advantages.     In  the  present  unsettled  state  of  world 


156  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

affairs,  the  need  for  the  serious  study  of  these  things 
cannot  be  denied.  And  when  citizens  of  different  nations 
meet  and  confer  upon  them,  the  study  is  bound  to 
be  fruitful  of  broader  ideas.  Hence  there  is  significance 
in  the  founding  of  this  new  Club.  Naturally  the  idea 
behind  the  brave  attempt  of  the  League  of  Nations,  or 
some  similar  practical  international  association  to  pre- 
vent misunderstandings  and  wars,  is  the  earnest  aim  of 
the  Club.  But  there  is  no  propaganda— only  discussion, 
among  persons  having  no  exaggerated  idea  of  their  own 
importance.  The  Club  maintains  reading,  lounging,  and 
dining  rooms  in  the  City.  It  already  has  a  counterpart 
at  Cornell  and  seems  destined  to  have  them  in  other 
American  universities. 

To  such  a  university  as  Oxford  there  is  bound  to  be  an 
international  complexion.  At  least  one-fifth  of  the 
undergraduates  come  from  beyond  the  British  Isles. 
Consequently  there  abound  national  and  international 
clubs. 

Most  American  undergraduates  (largely  Rhodes  Schol- 
ars) are  members  of  the  American  Club,  which  holds 
weekly  meetings  throughout  term-time  in  its  rooms  on 
George  Street.  There  are  debates  on  questions  of  the 
day — but  these  are  not  too  sedate;  the  true  purpose  of 
the  Club  is  social,  and  the  debates  frequently  become 
sessions  of  wit  and  repartee  between  North  and  South 
or  East  and  West  or  between  mere  individuals  repre- 
senting nothing  but  their  own  shameless  brilliancy.  The 
old  favorites  of  football  and  baseball  are  annually  revived 
— for  one  day  each.  An  Oxford  field,  at  all  other  times 
sacred  to  cricket,  is  trampled  by  American  football,  when 
the  old  men  meet  the  new.     But  seriously,  the  meeting 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  157 

of  Americans  from  every  part  of  the  Union  in  this  Club 
brings  immense  advantages  in  the  liberalization  of  those 
who  take  part.  And  what  is  that  but  a  step  toward  the 
realization  of  Rhodes'  ideals? 

There  is  also  a  Colonial  Club,  composed  of  men  from 
the  overseas  dominions  and  colonies — the  majority  of 
them  Rhodes  scholars.  This  also  is  a  social,  rather  than 
a  merely  sectional,  organization,  A  very  able  French 
Club  flourishes,  and  is  one  of  the  most  practical  of  the 
national  societies.  Its  meetings  are  conducted,  and  ably 
too,  in  French;  and  a  general  effort  made  to  make  the 
appeal  of  the  Entente  Cordiale  a  living  matter.  The 
membership  of  the  Club  is  not  confined  to  Frenchmen. 
The  many  native  students  from  India  have  their  organi- 
ization ;  as  do  also  the  Serbs,  who  came  to  the  university 
in  considerable  numbers  during  the  war. 

Recently  the  political  field  of  the  University  has  been 
enlivened  by  the  organization  of  a  Labour  Club,  which 
attracts  able  speakers  to  the  City  and  maintains  a  period- 
ical— The  New  Oxford — in  which  are  shown  visions  of  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  beyond  the  troublesome 
miasmas  of  the  Thames  valley. 

Still  newer  is  the  Studio  Club,  for  members  of  the 
University  interested  in  art,  and  in  the  creation  of  art. 
Actual  work  is  done,  and  exhibitions  held. 

One  of  the  most  ambitious  of  the  clubs  is  the  Oxford 
University  Dramatic  Society.  A  play  is  presented 
annually.  Competition  is  keen,  and  the  productions  are 
well  given.  In  1920  the  Society  presented  Hardy's 
"Dynasts",  the  author  himself  assisting  at  the  opening 
performance. 

The  old  favorites  abide.    Vincent's  still  presides  over 


158  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  athletic  destinies  of  the  University.  Socially  this  is 
perhaps  the  "Club  of  Clubs"  at  Oxford;  it  is  made  up 
chiefly  of  men  who  have  led  in  representing  the  Univer- 
sity against  Cambridge.  It  is  the  house  of  "blues",  and 
the  home  of  fame,  sheltered  in  modest  rooms  on  High 
Street,  where  its  members  dine  in  state.  Recently  an 
Achilles  Club  has  united  "blues"  of  track  and  field  from 
both  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  rendezvous  at  Queen's 
Club,  London.  A  club  with  less  of  the  aureole  of  fame 
but  even  more  of  the  spirit  of  jovial  enjoyment  of  life  is 
the  Gridiron.  The  membership  of  this,  too,  is  limited; 
and  there  are  those  who  consider  an  invitation  to  join 
as  the  crowning  glory  of  an  undergraduate  career.  Cer- 
tainly its  frank  devotion  to  the  pleasanter  side  of  life 
gives  it  a  unique  place  in  the  University. 

As  something  of  a  protest  from  the  aristocratic  set, 
always  to  be  found  at  Oxford,  against  the  democracy  of 
intercollegiate  and  intervarsity  sport,  stands  the  Bulling- 
don.  Its  members  pursue  the  pleasure  of  old  English  fox 
hunting  and  racing;  you  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  their 
"pink"  coats  and  pipe-clayed  breeches  as  they  take  the 
hedges  on  the  hills  about  Bicester,  or  meet  them  on  their 
splendid  horses  following  the  hounds  over  October 
ploughlands  near  Banbury.  Horses  and  hounds  are  their 
matters,  and  they  are  sincere  in  their  endeavor  to  perpet- 
uate English  sporting  tradition  of  the  older  type.  So 
their  dining  uniforms  still  flourish,  and  their  sumptuous 
dinners. 

An  organization  which  might  seem  to  be  similar  (but 
is  not)  is  the  Trinity-Magdalen-New  College  Beagles — a 
forbidding  title  but  a  democratic  association  which  pro- 
motes a  picturesque  and  strenuous  pastime.    Americans 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  159 

may  think  of  horses  and  hunting  coats  here.  But  there 
are  no  horses;  the  huntsman  runs  on  his  own  legs  and 
wears  old  clothes  proof  against  brooks  and  briars, 
ploughland  and  hedges.  There  are  rules  of  the  game — 
you  must  not  crawl  through  a  hedge  ahead  of  the  Master 
of  the  Hounds;  but  in  the  main  it  is  a  hare-and-hounds 
race  with  a  real  hare  and  real  hounds.  In  its  course  you 
come  into  close  intimacy  with  English  nature,  and  at  its 
end  you  tramp  home  weary  and  aglow. 

Talk  and  clubs  are  not  the  only  activities  of  Oxford, 
There  are  literary  ventures  for  those  who  care  for  them, 
and  publications  to  suit  all  tastes.  The  Oxford  Magazine 
still  stalks  conservatively;  and  the  Isis  has  revived  from 
its  war-retirement  with  a  new  good  humor  and  irre- 
sponsibility. The  Chenuell  is  another,  and  newer,  weekly. 
There  is  no  daily  paper  of  the  University.  Every  term 
sees  new  weekly  sheets  that  seldom  survive  beyond  the 
second  issue ;  the  wit  of  the  place  finding  an  easy  outlet 
in  these  mayfly  publications.  The  serious  spirit  in 
America  which  prompts  college  men  to  publish  and 
support  a  "pure"  newspaper  is  not  in  evidence  at  Oxford ; 
if  such  a  paper  were  to  appear  it  would  doubtless  die 
young.  On  the  other  hand  the  undergraduates  rejoice  in 
the  exercise  of  the  critical  faculty,  and  are  willing  to  say 
the  last  word  on  music,  drama,  letters,  and  sport.  But 
one  should  not  take  them  too  seriously — they  would  not 
expect  it.  There  is  much  verse  published  from  time  to 
time  during  the  year — some  of  it  given  to  the  world  in 
book  form  through  the  kindly  work  of  Blackwell,  mid- 
wife publisher  to  fledgling  poets. 

In  religious  life,  Oxford  is  officially  Anglican;  that  is 
to  say,  the  services  in  the  college  chapels  and  in  St. 


i6o  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Mary's,  the  University  church,  are  AngHcan,  But 
students  of  other  denominations  have  ample  opportuni- 
ties of  attending  their  respective  services;  the  colleges 
show  them  every  consideration  and  attendance  at  chapel 
is  not  insisted  upon  from  those  who  have  objections  on 
religious  grounds.  The  Congregationalists  have  a  re- 
ligious centre  at  Mansfield  College;  and  the  Unitarians 
at  Manchester  College.  Roman  Catholic  orders  main- 
tain two  halls  affiliated  with  the  University;  and  there 
is  also  a  Roman  Catholic  chapel  for  undergraduates  of 
that  Church. 

But  if  exercise  of  mind,  and  tongue  and  pen,  is  easy 
at  Oxford,  exercise  of  the  body  is  essential.  The  climate, 
especially  in  winter,  is  none  too  invigorating;  the  Thames 
valley  is  very  damp  and  fogs  are  frequent.  You  must 
exercise,  or  perish.  So  there  are  the  flourishing  sports  of 
the  University.  Oxford,  one  may  say,  has  at  least  ap- 
proached the  Athenian  ideal  of  perfect  education — equal 
for  mind  and  for  body;  for  her  undergraduates  give  the 
afternoon  of  each  day  to  the  playing  fields.  Much  has 
been  written  about  the  system  of  athletics  in  English 
universities.  There  is,  however,  nothing  more  serious  or 
scientific  to  this  system  than  getting  all  the  good  one  can, 
in  health  and  in  fun,  out  of  one's  exercise.  Everyone  goes 
in  for  some  sport  at  Oxford,  not  because  it  is  required 
(for  it  is  not),  but  merely  because  one  likes  to  play  golf, 
football,  tennis,  or  some  other  of  the  many  games.  And 
everyone  plays  hard  and  has  a  very  good  time  of  it. 
There  are  fewer  spectators  in  the  stands  and  more 
athletes  in  the  fields  at  Oxford  or  at  Cambridge  than  at 
any  other  university  in  the  world.    You  will  be  amazed 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  i6i 

to  see  a  mere  handful  of  spectators  at  an  important  Rugby 
match;  those  who  might  be  spectators  are  elsewhere 
playing  some  game  of  their  own.  Organized  cheering  has 
been  heard  of  only  by  newspaper  echo  from  America; 
good  playing  by  friend  or  foe  is  calmly  applauded. 

There  is  indeed  no  counterpart  at  Oxford  of  the  late- 
Roman  gladiatorial  combats  which  delight  the  sporting 
writers  in  the  United  States.  There  are  no  high-salaried 
experts  hired  to  train  a  few  picked  men  into  victor- 
ious teams,  leaving  the  fat  and  idle  thousands  to 
look  on  and  cheer.  The  men  who  make  up  Oxford  teams 
have  played  previously  on  college  teams  in  the  many  con- 
tests within  the  University;  they  have  no  paid  coach, 
but  only  the  advice  of  an  occasional  veteran  who  gives  it 
gratis.  "Training",  as  Americans  understand  the  word,  is 
known  only  in  rowing,  or  for  a  very  brief  period  before  a 
track  contest.  Even  the  varsity  Rugby  team  scarcely 
practises — but  prepares  itself  for  Cambridge  by  playing 
dozens  of  games  with  other  teams. 

The  varsity  sports  of  Oxford  are:  rowing,  Rugby 
football,  association  football,  track  and  field  athletics, 
cricket,  field  hockey,  tennis,  golf,  swimming,  boxing, 
lacrosse,  and  fencing.  Those  who  represent  the  Univer- 
sity against  Cambridge  in  any  of  the  first  five  of  these 
sports  are  awarded  a  "blue",  if  they  be  of  the  first  string; 
if  they  be  of  the  second  string,  or  if  the  sport  is  other  than 
one  of  the  first  six,  they  receive  the  "half-blue".  To  win  a 
blue  is  to  win  the  right  to  wear  the  University  color  (dark 
blue)  with  the  insignia  appropriate  to  the  particular 
sport.  Its  most  usual  expression  is  a  blazer  of  the  Uni- 
versity hue,  with  the  insignia  embroidered  in  white  upon 


i62  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  breast  pocket.  The  half-blue  blazer  is  of  blue  and 
white  stripes. 

The  details  of  the  universal  scheme  of  athletics  at 
Oxford  are  accomplished  not  through  the  varsity  teams 
and  matches,  but  through  the  colleges.  For  each  college 
has  its  crews,  and  its  football,  track,  cricket,  hockey, 
tennis,  and  golf  teams.  In  rowing,  football,  hockey,  and 
the  rest,  there  are  long  and  hotly  contested  intercollegiate 
schedules.  There  may  be  a  cup  to  change  hands  from  year 
to  year;  or  there  may  be  only  a  mythical  cup.  The  sport 
is  none  the  less  keen,  and  there  are  so  many  colleges,  and 
so  many  teams  and  games,  that  everyone,  be  he  ever  so 
humble,  gets  his  chance.  If  your  "rugger"  captain  rejects 
you  as  hopeless,  the  hockey  captain  may  find  in  you  a 
star.  These  intercollegiate  matches,  and  the  preliminary 
games  of  the  varsity,  are  generally  the  only  contests  dur- 
ing term  time.  Cambridge  is  met  on  neutral  ground 
in  London  during  the  vacations.  Long  journeys  to  dis- 
tant cities,  luxurious  hotels,  and  swarms  of  coaches  and 
trainers  are  generally  unknown  to  Oxford  varsity  men. 

Each  term  is  enlivened  by  a  "major"  sport.  Michael- 
mas has  "rugger"  (Rugby  football) — a  game  so  developed 
that  the  American  will  hardly  recognize  it  from  the  de- 
scription in  Tom  Brown  at  Rugby.  The  sides  are  now  lim- 
ited to  fifteen  men.  To  one  mindful  of  American  foot- 
ball, with  its  one-point  attack,  magnificent  kicking,  and 
carefully  planned  offensive  tactics  and  code  signals, 
rugger  may  seem  like  nothing  but  an  indiscriminate  run- 
ning-wrestling match.  But  there  are  rules  and  science 
enough  behind  this  chaos  to  make  it  exceedingly  difficult 
to  qualify  for  the  varsity, — as  well  as  enough  speed 
to  demand   the   finest   physical  condition.    When   one 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  163 

has  seen  many  games,  he  will  understand  its  virtues 
and  appreciate  the  swift,  if  short  and  erratic,  kicking,  the 
dexterous  passing,  the  thrilling  glory  of  the  stand-off 
half,  and  the  method  behind  the  apparent  madness  of  the 
"scrums".  Rugby  football  takes  a  lifetime  to  learn,  and 
it  is  worth  it ;  the  rugger  blue  ranks  next  in  glory  to  that 
of  the  oars. 

Association  football  is  also  played  principally  in 
Michaelmas  term.  Though  this  is  the  great  professional 
game  of  England,  it  has  never  been  so  popular  as  Rugby 
in  the  schools  and  universities. 

"Sports" — the  Oxford  name  for  track  and  field  athlet- 
ics— are  indulged  in  mainly  during  late  autumn  and 
winter.  Snow  rarely  falls  in  Oxford,  and  the  wet  days  of 
winter  are  not  too  cold  for  running.  This  is  the  branch  of 
athletics  in  which  Americans  feel  most  at  home;  and 
many  of  them  win  the  blue  with  the  laurel  wreath.  In 
the  main,  the  English  athlete  will  excel  in  the  distance 
runs;  while  the  American  will  be  better  in  the  sprints  and 
field  events  where  there  is  more  advantage  to  be  gained 
from  painstaking  mastery  of  the  scientific  methods  of 
American  coaches.  If  one  is  disappointed  with  stifif- 
legged  English  hurdling,  or  the  high-jumping  in  which  the 
men  jump,  to  quote  an  English  critic,  "by  the  light  of 
nature  and  not  very  well",  he  will  be  amazed  at  the  good 
times  recorded  in  the  mile  and  three-mile,  and  by  the 
number  of  men  with  little  training  or  coaching  who  can 
run  these  distances  well.  Oxford  cross-country  teams 
and  relay  teams — as  Americans  can  testify — are  fast. 
In  this  sport  alone  is  there  a  professional  trainer — but 
his  powers  are  advisory  rather  than  dictatorial. 

There  is  a  gymnasium  in  Oxford,  but  you  will  hardly 


1 64  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

find  it,  even  in  winter.  It  is  small,  and  hidden  on  a  by- 
street. Practically  all  sports,  except  boxing  and  fencing, 
or  tennis  on  turf  courts  and  cricket,  can  be  playea  out- 
doors the  year  around. 

The  most  picturesque  of  all  English  games  is  cricket.  It 
belongs  to  Trinity  or  summer  term,  when  it  is  played 
on  shaven  lawns  that  have  had  centuries  of  care,  by 
players  clad  in  immaculate  flannels,  and  with  the  accom- 
paniment of  tea.  Each  college  has  its  pavilion  fronting 
a  stretch  of  turf  for  cricket  and  tennis.  Other  games  may 
be  more  exciting  but  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  the 
ease  and  grace  and  setting  of  cricket.  It  requires  some- 
thing of  the  same  skill  to  curve  a  cricket  ball  bounding 
from  the  ground  as  to  twist  a  ball  while  travelling  through 
the  air;  and  it  is  even  a  more  beautiful  thing  to  see,  espe- 
cially against  English  lawns.  But  Americans  are  gener- 
ally not  interested  in  the  game — partly  because,  like 
baseball  and  Rugby  football,  one  has  to  play  it  almost 
from  birth. 

Tennis  is  played  the  year  around  on  hard  courts;  and 
in  early  autumn,  spring,  and  summer  on  firm  English 
lawn.  Golf  is  enjoyed  at  all  times — there  are  several 
courses  within  easy  reach  of  the  centre  of  the  City. 
Hockey,  played  by  many,  is  unfamiliar  to  Americans — 
being  a  vigorous  game  played  on  turf  with  a  curved  club 
and  a  round  hard  ball.  Ice  is  too  rare  in  Oxford  to 
permit  of  ice  hockey.  Lacrosse  has  revived  since  the 
war;  and  swimming,  boxing,  and  fencing  are  indulged  in 
by  the  few. 

Everyone  knows  that  a  river  is  a  mother  of  empire. 
There  could  have  been  no  glory  of  Luxor  and  Karnak,  no 
impressiveness  of  Pyramids,  had  not  the  Nile  come  down 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  165 

like  a  miracle  through  a  thousand  miles  of  desert  sands. 
Nor  could  the  splendid  cruelty  and  fierce  majesty  of 
Assyria  and  Chaldea  have  spread  a  pomp  of  purple  and 
gold  without  the  Twin-Rivers.  Oxford  might  conceiv- 
ably have  been  a  city  and  a  university  had  the  Thames 
not  seen  fit  to  come  lazily  down  from  the  sleepy  Cots- 
wolds  by  this  valley,  instead  of  by  the  wider  Vale  of 
the  White  Horse  to  the  south;  but  it  would  not  be  this 
Oxford.  The  Norman  overlords  found  pleasure  in  the 
river  here,  with  its  mysterious  and  deep  windings  and 
ammonite  twistings — should  you  set  your  face  westward 
seven  times  must  you  cross  the  mystic  stream — for  here 
was  a  stronghold  easy  to  defend.  So  they  built  their 
gloomy  keeps  above  it  and  the  religious  orders  that  came 
in  the  swathes  their  blades  had  made  set  up  the  great 
houses  of  Osney,  Whitefriars,  and  Blackfriars,  that 
by  their  stones  made  possible  later  houses  of  learning. 
And  Oxonians  today  find  pleasure  of  sweet  or  strenuous 
sort  in  the  river.  If  it  no  longer  provides  security  from 
invaders,  it  still  brings  waters  of  serene  idleness  or  of 
Homeric  contest.  No  Oxonian  thinks  of  Oxford  without 
remembering  the  Thames,  and  its  daughter,  the  Cherwell. 
Everyone  has  come  into  contact  with  the  river  at  one 
time  or  another.  Many  know  it  to  the  very  pebbles  of 
its  bottom.  The  wild  white  swans,  birds  of  the  King, 
haunt  it.  It  is  the  home  of  the  King  Sport  of  Oxford  and 
of  Britain. 

Almost  every  undergraduate,  sooner  or  later,  tries  his 
strength  on  an  oarhaft  for  his  college.  It  is  a  revelation  to 
an  American  to  see  a  river  crowded  and  darkened  with 
eights  of  all  degrees  of  skill.  Here  again  is  none  of  the 
narrow  and  limited  specialization  of  American  college 


i66  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

athletics.  Rowing  is  a  sport  for  all  who  care  to  row,  for 
the  indifferent  oarsman  of  140  pounds,  as  well  as  for  the 
giant  of  200.  Of  course  there  are  the  great  selected  crews 
from  which  the  varsity  is  to  be  picked;  but  even  these 
are  but  themselves  a  selection  of  hundreds^  who  have 
rowed  the  year  before  in  the  winter  galleys  of  the  fixed 
seats,  or  in  the  faster  sliding-seated  shells  of  May. 
One  need  not  be  an  oarsman  "trailing  clouds  of  glory"  in 
boating  from  Eton  or  Shrewsbury,  the  most  awkward 
tyro  may  splash  his  way  to  a  college  eight.  It  is  all  but 
making  the  sport  the  first  thing,  and  the  first  crew, 
secondary. 

The  Oxford-made  oarsman's  Genesis  is  in  "tubbing": 
long  sessions  in  a  pair-oared  craft  whose  lines  recall  that 
of  the  Wisemen  of  Gotham,  while  he  displays  his  latent 
prowess  to  the  keen  eye  of  a  college  veteran — learning 
how  to  feather  the  blade  by  a  quick  drop  of  the  wrists  and 
to  attain  the  basic  virtue  of  coming  forward  with  the  body 
between  the  knees.  Thence,  if  not  hopeless,  he  makes  his 
Exodus  in  November  to  the  "Torpid" — a  heavy  eight- 
oared  shell  with  fixed  seats,  and  a  speed  described  by  its 
name.  The  Torpids  (or  "Toggers",  as  they  are  called)  of 
the  several  colleges  race  in  mid-February.  So  each  Janu- 
ary afternoon  finds  the  river,  now  in  flood,  noisy  and 
confused  with  these  splashing  tyro-craft  and  with 
megaphoned  coaches  laying  down  the  law  from  bicycles 
on  the  Tow  Path. 

The  Thames  at  Oxford  is  not  a  big  river.  Some 
Americans  might  mistake  it  for  a  creek,  and  at  "Togger- 
time",  for  a  muddy  one.    There  are  twenty-odd  colleges, 

1  In  the  course  of  a  year  approximately  400  undergraduates  take  part 
in  the  inter-college  races. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  167 

most  of  which  have  at  least  two  crews,  to  participate  in 
the  races.  It  would  seem  like  trying  to  put  the  genii  of 
the  poor  fishermen  back  into  the  little  bottle.  Yet  it  is 
done,  and  well  done,  twice  each  year.  What  the  Thames 
lacks  in  breadth  it  has  happily  supplied  in  length — for 
from  the  site  of  the  Old  Mill  that  ground  its  grist  for  700 
years  at  Iffley  there  is  better  than  a  mile  of  weirless  water 
upstream  to  the  old  lodging  place  of  Roger  Bacon  on 
Folly  Bridge.  So  the  sport  is  cut  to  fit  the  river.  Each 
afternoon,  for  six  consecutive  days,  three  divisions  of 
college  Torpids,  composed  of  about  a  dozen  boats  each, 
row  over  this  mile.  The  boats  start  150  feet  apart,  and 
pursue  one  another  up  to  the  head  of  the  row  of  college 
barges  by  Christ  Church  meadow;  that  is  to  say,  the 
medium  lucky  boats  and  the  medium  unfortunate  row 
through  to  the  end.  The  very  good  or  the  hopeless  crews 
finish  their  work  anywhere  this  side  of  the  end.  When  a 
boat  closes  the  gap  ahead,  it  rams  the  stern  of  its  prey 
until  the  coxswain  in  the  stricken  craft  throws  up  his 
hand  to  acknowledge  the  bump.  If  he  is  overproud  and 
neglects  to  confess  defeat,  it  is  best  to  sink  him  and  his 
galley-slaves;  then  you  are  sure  of  the  bump.  It  does  not 
pay  to  hesitate,  for  there  is  the  boat  behind  to  serve  you 
as  you  would  serve  others.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to 
make  a  bump;  many  an  overlapped  boat  has  slipped 
away  to  safety  by  a  supreme  wrench  of  the  tiller  in  the 
nick  of  time;  coxswains  are  full  of  wiles  from  long  prac- 
tice in  hugging  shores  and  dodging  pursuers. 

When  a  bump  is  made,  both  bumper  and  bumpee  drop 
out  of  the  race.  So  some  boats  may  have  only  a  hopeless 
gap  to  pursue  to  the  end  of  the  course.  Next  day  the 
bumper  and  bumpee  exchange  places.    Thus  the  better 


i68  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

boats  work  their  way  to  the  top  of  their  divisions,  while 
the  weaker  drift,  bumped  to  ignominy,  towards  the  tail 
of  the  procession.  In  the  day's  race,  the  lowest  division 
rows  first ;  and  so  on  to  the  top  division ;  the  gaps  being 
bridged  by  the  head  boat  of  the  third  division  rowing  the 
course  a  second  time  as  the  bottom  boat  of  the  second 
division,  and  the  head  boat  of  the  second,  rowing  as 
bottom  boat  of  the  first.  That  boat  which  leads  all  after 
the  closing  race  is  Head  of  the  River — which  means  glory 
immortal  and  year-long  fame.  Junior  common  rooms  are 
hung  with  tiller  trophies  of  headships  of  yesterday.  One 
college  is  said  to  have  been  accustomed  to  close  its  grace 
before  dinner  with  the  words — "By  grace  of  God,  first 
on  the  River" — (whether  this  practice  ceased  through 
regard  for  truth  or  for  reverence,  I  cannot  say).  The 
order  of  finish  becomes  the  order  of  start  for  the  following 
year.  How  the  boats  first  started  is  a  matter  lost,  like 
many  English  things,  in  the  mists  of  antiquity. 

There  are  those  who  harbor  the  delusion  that  the 
English  are  unexcitable.  Let  them  come  to  the  Iffley 
Tow  Path  during  "Eights"  or  "Toggers"!  If  the  English- 
man takes  his  cricket  decorously,  he  blossoms  out  into 
the  temperament  of  Montana  when  following  the  boats. 
And  graybeards  of  former  races  bear  him  company.  Here 
are  colleges  in  crowds,  stripped  for  action,  patriarchs  in 
shorts  and  faded  blazers,  men  of  present  or  past  glory  in 
football,  cricket,  or  rowing,  clad  in  coats  of  many  colors 
bearing  every  device  known  to  heraldry — griffins,  crosses, 
dragons,  lions,  harps,  shells,  lilies,  keys,  wheels,  and 
crowns.  They  are  armed  with  varied  instruments  of 
noise;  whistles,  megaphones,  rattles,  and  pistols  make  the 
Tow  Path  a  bedlam  where  the  serpentine  pandemonium 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  169 

keeps  abreast  of  the  splashing  boats.  The  followers  push 
one  another  into  the  river  in  their  mad  rush.  Ardent 
supporters  of  Jesus  College  urge  on  their  crew  with 
shouts  otherwise  profane.  A  half-naked  monocled  mad- 
man leads  on  the  thundering  cohorts  of  his  house  of 
learning. 

And  the  striped  and  straining  oarsmen  are  more  excited 
than  their  supporters.  Men  who  have  calmly  awaited 
the  zero  hour  in  Picardy  feel  their  throats  go  dry  and 
know  the  slow  movement  of  aeons  as  the  last  ten  seconds 
are  counted  oH  before  the  start, — 

As  they  apply  the  resin  to  their  palms, 

Or  lithely  lip  the  lemon's  loathesome  charms. 

After  it  is  all  over,  when  the  wounds  of  bumps  received 
have  been  healed  with  fair  excuses,  and  notches  of  bumps 
bestowed  counted  with  pride,  there  are  bump  suppers 
for  the  successful — feasts  of  adulation  and  roast  beef 
seasoned  with  brown  ale.    And  then  to  bed — 

Where,  in  a  trice,  sleep-laden  eyelids  close; 
Each  Toggernaut,  deep  in  a  sweet  repose. 
Views  once  again  the  Isis'  swollen  stream 
And  bumps  and  over-bumps  in  breathless  dream; 
All — except  "six",  who  vents  a  senseless  snore! 
But  "six"  had  dreamed  of  bumps  the  year  before! 

"Eights"  week,  late  in  May,  sees  the  tale  retold,  in 
better  form  and  weather.  While  the  Torpids  are  heavy 
fixed-seated  boats  manned  by  young  oarsmen  w^ho  have 
never  fowed  in  any  better  college  race,  the  "Eight"  con- 
tains the  best  talent  of  each  college,  seated  on  slides,  in  the 
best  product  of  the  skilled  shell-builders  of  England. 
Even  the  gods  who  lately  dwelt  upon  Olympian  seats  in 


170  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  varsity  eight  and  raced  the  hostile  deities  of  Cam- 
bridge in  March,  are  not  ashamed  to  pull  an  oar  for 
college  fame.  At  this  time,  too,  the  monastic  year  of  the 
undergraduate  is  over  for  a  time — girls  in  dainty  sum- 
mery white  come  up  from  London  and  Winchester  and 
elsewhere  to  sit  on  the  tops  of  the  college  barges  or 
watch  from  punts  the  pageant  of  young  manhood  sweep- 
ing past  on  the  river.  This  is  the  social  event  of  the  year. 
This,  and  not  the  more  sedate  season  of  Commemoration, 
is  the  time  when  her  sons  return  to  Oxford.  Now  the 
City  is  full  of  visitors.  The  hearts  of  starved  youth  are 
gladdened  by  the  sight  of  gay  hats  and  parasols  in  every 
quad.  Parties  profane  the  once-studious  morning  hours; 
dances  star  the  evenings. 

In  the  afternoon,  for  the  six  racing  days,  the  River  is 
brimmed  with  craft  of  every  description ;  afar  the  vistas 
of  punt  poles  make  a  watery  forest  of  all  save  the  narrow 
ribbon  of  the  race-course.  The  barges  swarm  with  white 
gowns  and  rainbow-banded  straws.  While  the  gay 
crowds  divert  themselves  with  tea  the  boom  of  the 
starting  gun  is  heard  from  Iffley, — and  the  race  is  on: 

Parson,  quit  your  lonely  village, 

Citizen,  the  smoky  town; 
Farmer,  leave  the  fields  and  tillage, 

Lawyer,  doff  that  wig  and  gown ! 
Breathe  once  more  the  youth  of  Oxford 

Where  the  punts  serenely  rock  :— 
For  the  Eights  are  paddling,  paddling, 

Down  away  to  IfHey  Lock! 
Keep  her  steady ! 
Turning,  ready, 

By  the  bend  at  Ififley  Lock. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  171 

Crowded  barge-tops  shine  resplendent 

With  the  decorative  sex, 
While  their  cavaliers  attendant 

Strive  a  teacup  to  annex; 
Eightsmen  grey,  and  Eightsmen  greyer 

To  the  riverside  re-flock — ■ 
For  the  Eights  are  pulling,  pulling, 

Fast  away  from  Iffley  Lock! 

:f:  i}e  :f:  He  ^ 

As  the  Eights  come  swinging,  swinging, 
Hell  for  leather  through  the  'Gut'! 

Feel  her  jumping? 

Boys,  You're  bumping! 
Break  those  stretchers  through  the  'Gut' ! 

Past  the  Boat-house,  up  the  barges. 
Swinging,  spurting  all  the  way! 

While  enthusiastic  Pa,  ges- 
ticulating, howls  'Hooray'! 

For  his  boat,  his  boy  are  bumping, 
And  it's  more  than  he  can  stand. 

Till  the  coxswain  signals  'Vanquished!' 
Till  the  coxswain  lifts  his  hand. 
'Finely  rowed,  sir! 
I'll  be  Mowed,  sir. 
But  that  last  long  spurt  was  grand!' 

Listen !  soft — the  river  calls  you 
From  the  city,  country,  coast! 
(Some,  perchance,  have  reached  life's  Boat-house, 
Through  the  Gut,  and  past  Red  Post) 
Join  us  now,  sirs! 
Come!  Here's  how,  sirs; 
'Eights  for  ever!' — that's  the  toast! 


172  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

If  upon  your  college  the  laurels  of  victory  have  fallen, 
you  and  your  fellow  runners  on  the  Tow  Path  claim  the 
benign  kinship  of  Father  Thames,  and,  plunging  into  the 
tide,  clothes  and  all,  swim  across,  to  escort  home,  like  so 
many  Tritons,  your  heroic  Eightsmen. 

Of  course,  the  greatest  rowing  event  of  the  year  is  the 
Oxford-Cambridge  race,  rowed  on  the  Thames  in  the 
western  suburbs  of  London  during  the  March  vacation. 
But  this  race,  falling  as  it  does  without  the  pale  of  Oxford 
and  rowed  as  it  is  on  the  lower  alien  waters  of  the  River 
in  the  land  of  the  Philistines  as  a  sort  of  gladiatorial 
show  for  a  general  public,  has  less  of  the  spirit  of  joviality 
that  marks  the  combats  of  Eights  and  Toggers.  It  is  a 
more  aloof  and  sedate  affair. 

It  is  significant  of  the  spirit  of  Oxford  athletics  that  the 
Universitj'  has  no  professional  rowing  coach.  The  var- 
sity crews,  as  well  as  the  college  eights,  are  trained  by 
veterans  of  past  races,  who  gladly  give  their  time  and 
effort.  The  best  of  the  college  eights  are  sent  to  take  part 
in  the  gala  British  week  of  water  sports  at  Henley  in 
early  July.  There  perhaps  will  be  seen  Harvard  or  some 
other  American  crew;  and  the  slower,  steadier  English 
stroke  will  be  matched  against  the  more  jerky  feverish 
western  style  in  which  the  oarsman  rows  less  with  the 
back  and  more  with  the  arms.  These  matters,  too,  are 
less  purely  Oxonian. 

The  varsity  oarsman,  it  may  be  said,  has  attained 
something  little  short  of  immortal  fame.  His  blue  is  the 
hardest  blue  of  all  to  win.  And  rowing  has  long  been,  is, 
and  shall  be  the  greatest  sport  of  the  University. 

There  is,  however,  a  lazier  life  of  the  River,  less  glorious 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  173 

but  perhaps  more  delightful.  There  are  in  fact  two  rivers. 
The  Cherwell,  a  pretty  stream  flowing  through  fields  of 
buttercups  and  woodlands  where  cuckoos  sing,  comes 
down  from  the  hills  of  Banbury.  Passing  through 
"Mesopotamia"  and  under  the  bridge  hard  by  Magdalen 
Tower,  where  boy  choristers  greet  each  May  Day  with  a 
Latin  hymn,  it  gently  meets  the  Thames  near  Christ 
Church  meadows,  among  the  college  barges.  When 
Spring  has  sweetened  the  land,  the  Cher  is  a  river  of 
indolent  dreams,  a  paradise  for  idle  boating.  You  can 
paddle  or  pole  your  way  up  its  gentle  current  and  lie 
against  the  bank  under  the  grateful  willow  shade.  Or  you 
can  make  Sunday  trips  with  a  few  friends  far  up  its  wind- 
ing course;  here  the  river  is  but  a  brook,  where  angling 
or  Aeschylus  find  added  pleasure  in  the  golden  haze  of 
the  fields  or  the  green  gloom  of  interlacing  boughs.  Or 
again,  young  ladies  from  St.  Hugh's  or  Lady  Margaret 
may  be  taken  on  a  quest  for  tea  among  rustic  summer 
houses. 

The  main  river  also  has  its  charms.  Above  the  City, 
beyond  gas  works  and  Port  Meadow — the  common  of 
Oxford  citizens  for  a  thousand  years — it  again  becomes 
eloquent  with  the  shade  of  great  elms  and  flocks  of  white 
swans.  It  washes  the  bower  of  Fair  Rosamond  at  ruined 
Godstowe.  There,  too,  is  the  haven  of  piscatorial  peace 
that  would  delight  old  Izaak  Walton  himself — the  Trout 
Inn.  Hither,  so  the  proprietor  stoutly  declares,  the  nuns 
of  Godstowe  used  to  come  for  a  harmless  draught.  And 
farther  up  above  the  woodlands  of  Wytham  and  Eynsham 
toll-bridge  (where  by  George  Ill's  decree  a  pram  pays 
as  much  as  a  motor-truck)  the  boatman  comes  into  a 
quiet  where  sleepy  trees  hold  up  the  drowsy  summer 


174  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

clouds  and  herons  stand  mooning  in  the  whispering 
reeds.  This  is  Newbridge,  which,  now  that  old  London 
Bridge  has  fallen  down,  has  become  the  oldest  bridge 
over  the  Thames.  On  its  perfect  aspiring  curve,  above 
the  seven  arches,  the  lace-frilled  Kingsmen  bore  down 
the  Roundhead  pikemen  long  ago;  a  most  proper  sort  of 
bridge,  with  an  inn  at  either  end — the  Rose,  of  potent 
home-brewed  ale,  and  the  May  Bush,  of  old  flagstones 
and  benches  worn  to  hollows.  Or  should  the  river 
wanderer  wish  to  prolong  his  Odyssey,  he  may  visit  at 
this  point  its  fair  daughters,  the  sedgy  Windrush  and 
the  "perfect  Evenlode": — 

A  lovelj'  river,  all  alone, 

She  lingers  in  the  hills  and  holds 

A  hundred  little  towns  of  stone, 
Forgotten  in  the  western  wolds. 

Or  perhaps  you  will  prefer  to  travel  downstream  from 
Oxford  to  Nuneham  Park,  where  "Capability"  Brown, 
prince  of  artificers  of  the  artificial  eighteenth  century, 
who  saw  a  stream  merely  as  an  excuse  for  an  elaborate 
bridge  and  who  re-worked  nature  to  man's  behest,  has 
built  his  monument  of  landscape  gardening.  Farther  on 
the  spires  of  monkish  Abingdon  shadow  the  river;  and 
beyond,  in  labyrinthine  backwaters  where  cows  crop 
waterlilies,  checkerboards  of  peaceful  fields  are  spread 
below  the  crest  of  Sinodun,  the  key-hill  of  the  upper 
Thames  valley,  with  its  ramparted  slopes  and  gloomy 
crown  of  trees  whose  roots  are  among  the  brave  bones 
of  Briton,  Roman,  Saxon,  and  Dane. 

There  is  a  wealth  of  craft  from  which  to  choose:  rob- 
roys,  dinghys,  whiffs,  canoes  from  Oldtown,  Maine,  and 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  175 

the  prime  favorite — the  punt.  Epicurus  may  well  have 
spent  his  days  in  some  Grecian  prototype  of  the  punt. 
Its  name  in  England  brings  memories  of  girls  in  restful 
white  and  men  in  flannels  with  rainbow  sashes,  of  bright 
summer  under  the  airy  canopy  of  shade,  of  idling  over 
happy  books.  The  punt  is  a  light  flat-bottomed  square- 
ended  boat,  with  cushions  upon  which  to  recline  at  length. 
It  is'propelled  by  a  long  pole  which  the  propeller,  stand- 
ing upon  the  rear  end,  shoves  into  the  bottom.  Now  the 
bottom  is  a  thing  of  guile;  for  yards  and  yards  it  may 
stretch  hard  and  firm,  and  then,  just  when  the  punter 
is  rosy  with  confidence,  it  drops  serenely  away,  or  the 
pole  sinks  swiftly  into  a  sickening  mudbank.  If  adept, 
the  punter  stays  with  the  punt  and  leaves  the  pole ;  if  not, 
he  stays  with  the  pole  and  leaves  the  punt.  The  way  to 
skill  is  moist.  For  the  novice,  too,  the  punt  will  go  in  any 
direction  save  that  chosen;  he  will  receive  rich  examples 
of  oratory  from  boats  he  never  dreamed  could  be  hit. 
Then  there  are  trees  ready  to  treat  him  like  Absalom 
while  the  punt  goes  merrily  on.  Punting  is  a  royal  game 
— for  those  who  lie  on  the  cushions  and  give  advice  to 
him  who  stands  and  poles. 

There  are  more  byways  to  learning  than  those  of  the 
rivers.  There  is  the  great  university  of  the  hills  and  ham- 
lets around  Oxford.  Walking  is  not  a  lost  art.  Golden 
lectures  may  be  read  in  the  October  wheatsheaves,  and 
lessons  of  happiness  and  contentment,  as  well  as  of  Gothic 
and  Norman  architecture,  may  be  learned  in  the  hundred 
villages  within  footing  distance  of  the  City.  The  sleepy 
lanes  of  Stanton  Harcourt  and  the  rose-hung  thatched 
cottages  of  Wytham  ofifer  rich  courses  in  the  culture  of 


176  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

life, — precepts  of  simplicity  and  of  peace.  One  may  live 
Gray's  Elegy  almost  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
old  City  walls.  There  are  the  fragments  of  mediaeval 
glass  in  Yarnton  Church,  the  lich-gate  of  Garsington, 
the  village  green  of  Marsh  Baldon,  the  village  pond  with 
palings  and  ducks  at  Cumnor,  streets  of  chocolate-colored 
thatched  cottages  with  geranium  window-boxes  and  rose- 
wound  dormers  at  Clifton  Hampden,  the  ruined  mill  at 
Wheatley,  the  everlasting  roses  of  Hinton  Waldrist,  the 
Fyfield  elm  where  Matthew  Arnold's  maidens  danced  on 
May  Day.  There  are  fancies  to  follow  among  the  twisted- 
and  knotted  pollard  willows  below  Ferry  Hinksey,  hun- 
dreds of  larks  to  gladden  your  heart  along  Cowley  Plain, 
and  nightingales  to  hear  in  the  high  woods  of  Iffley.  It 
may  be  your  good  fortune  to  become  the  friend  of  a  wa- 
terman who  lives  in  his  houseboat  with  geraniums  and 
white  curtains,  close  by  the  remnant  of  Osney  Abbey. 
You  may  hope  to  come  to  know  the  genial  philosopher 
with  wooden  yoke  for  carrying  waterpails,  who  serves  the 
housewives  of  Iffley.  The  unspoiled  humanity  of  old 
village  life  awaits  you  upon  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys 
on  every  hand.  There  are  good  friends  to  make  your 
trips  worth  while,  men  who  know  the  countryside  to  its 
last  stile  and  hedgerow. 

There  is  the  Meadow  of  the  Seven  Candles  below 
Iffley,  where  the  monks  of  Abingdon  and  the  haughty 
Norman  burghers  of  Oxford  saw  the  miraculous  voyage  of 
the  raft,  which,  with  its  candles  against  the  stream,  circled 
all  the  disputed  meadowland,  touching  it  everywhere  for 
the  brotherhood  of  Abingdon.  Below  the  Tower  of  Iffley 
Church, — the  most  perfect  Norman  church  in  Europe — 
with  its  zodiacal  bird-demons  fringing  the  door  with  their 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  177 

beaks,  snowdrops  usher  in  the  youngest  Spring.  Beyond 
the  Church  and  past  the  hill  where  Hawthorne  loved  to 
He  and  watch  Oxford's  spires,  is  a  coppice  where  even  in 
February  the  wild  yellow  primrose  blooms.  When  you 
have  wandered  far  on  quests  like  these,  there  is  every- 
where offered  the  rest  of  inns,  where  tea  with  eggs  and 
rich  jam  or  plenty  of  good  ale  and  cheese  give  you  new 
energy  for  the  walk  homeward. 

If,  like  most  undergraduates,  you  get  yourself  a  bicy- 
cle, the  circle  of  your  day's  wandering  from  Oxford  may 
be  widened.  Within  a  day's  ride — out  and  back — are 
many  sights  to  see.  All  Berkshire  beckons  from  the 
South ;  on  its  blue  downs  Alfred  and  his  Saxons  with  their 
"morning-cold"  spears  in  hand  awaited  the  shock  of  the 
red-haired  Danes  coming  over  the  crest  of  Ashdown  at 
sunrise.  Below  is  Wantage,  an  ancient  town  of  kings; 
and  Faringdon,  where  Canute  made  merry  with  a  silver 
drinking  horn  still  to  be  seen.  This  is  the  Vale  of  the 
White  Horse;  and  here,  above  Ufftngton,  is  that  great 
white  dragon  itself,  the  symbol  of  the  West-Saxons, 
shining  afar  as  when  first  carved  out  of  the  turf  by 
Alfred  and  his  victorious  men  after  Wedmore.  You  may 
climb  up  and  sit  in  the  creature's  eye! 

Westward  the  Cotswolds  invite  you  to  their  tucked- 
away  towns  living  the  quiet  life  of  yesterday,  each  with  a 
Norman  church,  and  names  of  music  such  as  Stow-on-the- 
Wold.  To  the  North  are  Blenheim  and  its  ducal  seat, 
and  Woodstock.  Farther  on,  but  less  than  fifty  miles 
from  Oxford,  is  Warwickshire —  with  Stratford,  Warwick, 
and  Kenil worth.  To  the  Northeast  are  Banbury,  famous 
for  buns,  and  Bicester;  while  Southeast  are  the  beech- 
crowned  Chiltern  Hills.  The  England  that  you  thus  come 


178  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

to  know — here  is  the  heart  of  old  England — you  will 
remember  while  you  live. 

Within  the  City  itself  there  is  learning  outside  of  lec- 
tures and  university  libraries.  No  city  in  America  or 
England,  save  London,  has  more  delightful  bookshops. 
They  run  underground,  they  overflow  upon  the  streets; 
I  know  of  no  more  entertaining  course  than  that  of  the 
street  bookstalls;  you  may  have  Marcus  Aurelius  at  his 
best  amid  the  street  sounds — dull  poets  acquire  an  elo- 
quence in  the  open.  No  one  disturbs  you,  for  these  books 
can  be  bought  for  a  song ;  and  you  may  read  away  whole 
afternoons.  Antique  shops  also  spread  their  nets  of  old 
Sheffield  to  ensnare  you.  You  will  sooner  or  later  be- 
come a  collector  of  something. 

In  the  beauty  created  by  the  past  is  much  to  be 
learned  by  the  present.  The  different  colleges  them- 
selves offer  a  field  of  architectural  and  historical  learning 
that  no  one  undergraduate  lifetime  can  hope  to  exhaust. 
Every  sort  of  architecture  and  art, — good,  bad,  and  in- 
different— is  about  you.  But  try  as  you  may,  some 
colleges  will  always  remain  a  terra  incognita.  And  if  you 
do  not  try,  you  will  probably  find  yourself  at  the  end  of 
your  third  year,  when  Schools  are  over,  rushing  about 
and  doing  the  University  like  a  Cook's  tourist. 

Best  of  all,  there  will  be  a  university  of  English 
friends;  for  after  a  time  much  of  the  reserve  of  the 
first  days  will  disappear.  The  best  English  gardens 
have  high  walls,  with  broken  glass  on  the  top;  but  there 
are  gates  which  will  open.  Perhaps  Americans  overdo 
cordiality  in  their  colleges,  where  a  premium  is  placed 
on  a  good  "mixer".     But,  at  all  events,  there  exists  at 


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SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  179 

Oxford  not  the  slightest  impediment  to  an  American's 
forming  friendships  of  the  truest  sort  among  men  of 
similar  tastes.  If  he  be  a  "blue",  or  wish  to  be  one,  he  will 
find  friends  among  lovers  of  sport;  if  he  delight  more  in 
pleasures  of  the  mind,  he  will  find  the  fellowship  of  kin- 
dred minds.  From  his  tutor,  dean,  or  even  the  Head  of 
his  college,  he  may  come  to  know  how  graceful  much 
learning  may  be  made.  In  North  Oxford  he  may  meet 
those  less  actively  in  the  University  life — great  men 
and  leaders  of  the  thought  of  the  nation.  Sir  William 
Osier  while  he  lived  was  such  a  friend  to  undergraduates. 

On  the  ladies'  days  of  Eights  and  Commemoration 
Weeks,  the  undergraduate  may  extend  his  friendships  to 
girls  of  his  own  age  and  interests.  Then  come  teas  in 
quiet  gardens,  teas  and  spreads  in  your  own  sanctuary,  if 
you  be  still  in  college,  or  among  your  uncertain  armchairs 
and  under  your  landlady's  critical  eye,  if  you  be  in  lodg- 
ings (or  "digs",  to  speak  the  varsity  language).  There 
are  dances  under  the  marquee  that  fills  an  entire  quad 
like  the  tent  of  a  patriarch,  supper  in  a  transfigured  hall, 
and  walks  among  the  trees  ot  the  garden,  festooned  with 
lanterns.  At  other  college  balls  also  you  may  help  to 
make  a  happy  party.  Nor  are  these  the  only  seasons  of 
such  society,  for  there  are  dances  and  teas  at  Somerville 
or  Lady  Margaret. 

Oxford  terms  are  short,  and  your  devotions  beyond 
mere  books  so  long,  that  most  of  your  work  must  be 
done  in  the  vacations — the  six  weeks'  periods  at  Christ- 
mas and  Easter,  and  the  four  months  of  the  summer. 
Even  then  you  need  not  retire  to  a  hermit  cell  in  the 
country.  Friends  reading  along  the  same  lines  may  join 
you  for  a  "reading  party"  in  Devon,  or  North  Wales,  or 


i8o  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

among  the  Lakes.  But  in  your  early  years,  with  Schools 
far  ahead,  you  will  probably  seize  the  opportunity  to 
travel  on  the  Continent — many  Americans  manage  to 
roam  from  Norway  to  Spain,  and  Brittany  to  Sicily, 
though  the  increased  cost  does  not  encourage  long  jour- 
neys^^,^"^ 

\^  Apart  from  the  round  of  more  or  less  organized  social 
life  which  I  have  been  describing,  in  addition  to  the 
pleasure  of  University  sports  and  functions,  and  excur- 
sions into  the  surrounding  countryside,  it  is  more  than 
likely  that  the  undergraduate  will  find  the  best  hours  of 
his  life  in  informal  gatherings  of  his  friends  in  his  or 
another's  rooms.  Oxford  is  intensely  social  in  the  most 
informal  way.  Undergraduates  are  continually  enter- 
taining each  other  at  breakfast,  or  at  lunch,  or  meeting 
for  tea,  or  coffee  after  dinner,  in  their  rooms  in  college 
or  in  their  lodgings  in  the  City.  These  occasions,  among 
friends,  are  of  the  pleasantest  and  most  valuable  social 
experiences  which  the  University  can  offer.  The  habit 
of  entertaining  and  being  entertained  in  this  way  is  one 
of  the  best;  and  is  early  taught  to  the  first-year  men.  It 
is  fair  to  say  that  the  undergraduate  who  spends  two  con- 
secutive days  in  term  without  a  meal  or  a  chat  over  tea 
or  coffee  with  some  of  his  fellows  is  either  deliberately 
missing  one  of  the  best  gifts  of  the  University,  or  wrestling 
almost  too  vigorously  with  Schools  and  books. 

This  is  especially  true  of  the  first  year.  Then  the  ter- 
rors of  Final  Schools  are  dimmed  by  the  haze  of  distance; 
and  the  undergraduate  does  not  ordinarily  feel  bound  to 
spend  more  than  half  of  each  term-day  over  his  books. 
Summer  term  of  this  first  year  is  the  most  social  term  of 
all — a  term  when  distant  Schools  and  beautiful  weather 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  i8i 

combine  to  keep  you  much  outdoors  or  with  your  friends. 
Such  a  day  may  frequently  run  something  as  follows: 

You  wake  on  your  small  pallet,  reminiscent  of  barracks, 
with  great  reluctance,  for  Oxonian  sleep  is  deep  and 
untroubled.  Something  is  forcing  itself  upon  your  state 
of  "pure  being".  At  last  you  know — it  is  your  "scout". 
He  has  been  hovering  over  you  and  chanting  his  "Five- 
and-twenty-minutes-past-seven,  sir"  for  heaven  knows 
how  long,  or  rattling  away  at  your  jug  and  bowl.  Through 
the  window,  whose  businesslike  bars  remind  you  that  this 
is  Oxford — the  last  outpost  of  a  mediaevalism  which  kept 
lads  of  learning  in  at  night — you  see  a  neighboring  college 
gable.  And  you  hear  the  incessant  ringing  of  variously- 
toned  bells,  all  over  the  City.  You  leap  out  of  bed  and 
bathe  swiftly, — for  cares  are  far  away  and  you  have  a 
"brekker"  on  your  hands  this  morning.  The  hot  water 
for  shaving,  in  the  can  that  looks  like  a  garden  watering 
pot,  is  hot  by  courtesy  only;  and  you  must  eke  it  out 
from  a  jug  as  cold  as  New  England  providence.  You 
hurry — and  finish  your  dressing  before  the  cheery  warmth 
of  the  fire  in  your  study;  slipping  into  gray  flannel 
"bags"  (an  unofficial  badge  of  the  University  from 
Fellows  of  All  Souls  to  the  meekest  commoner)  the 
name  of  which  denotes  their  cut  and  want  of  creases, 
and  donning  a  woolly  waistcoat  and  a  sports  coat  of 
heavy  Scottish  tweed.  Now  you  are  in  the  ordinary 
working  uniform  of  undergraduate  Oxford. 

Your  scout  hurries  back  and  forth  and  in  and  out 
of  your  study.  White  linen  and  silver  toastracks  begin 
to  appear  from  his  closets  and  yours.  You  have  four  or 
five  men  coming  to  your  breakfast.  In  the  lean  years 
during  and  just  after  the  war,  colleges  retrenched  and 


1 82  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

forced  all  members  to  take  all  meals  in  the  college  hall. 
But  good  days  return,  and  the  best  custojns.  You  may 
have  to  go  to  another  college  for  your  tutor,  but  you  can 
have  breakfast,  lunch,  and  tea  in  your  own  rooms. 

Your  study,  it  should  have  been  said,  may  be  a  pan- 
elled, though  somewhat  gloomy,  rectangle — furnished 
with  ordinary  wooden  chairs  and  two  or  three  somewhat 
shabby  armchairs.  There  is  a  sideboard,  notched  and 
chipped  by  men  and  breakfasts  of  other  days.  And  a 
bookcase  which  some  worthy  tried  to  decorate  with 
carving.  Mirrors  abound, — for  some  reason  unknown,  a 
decorative  motif  popular  with  college  bursars.  On  your 
walls  are  a  couple  of  goods  prints,  and  possibly  some- 
thing which  you  claim  to  be  "an  old  master".  In  any 
case  your  mantel  boasts  a  match  box,  a  tobacco  jar,  and 
half-a-dozen  pipes. 

While  the  scout  finishes  laying  the  covers,  you  answer 
the  summons  of  your  college  bell,  attending  chapel  or 
presenting  yourself  at  roll-call.  Thus  your  presence  in 
college  gets  a  final  check.  For  this  function,  you  will 
have  caught  up  a  bit  of  tattered  black  cloth  from  under 
the  table,  and  wrapped  it  around  your  neck  or  thrown  it 
over  a  shoulder.  You  are  a  "Commoner"  in  the  Univer- 
sity, and  this  is  your  gown — a  strip  of  stuff  with  holes  for 
the  arms  instead  of  sleeves,  reaching  only  to  the  bottom 
of  your  coat,  and  far  from  meeting  in  front.  Two  little 
streamers  springing  from  the  shoulders,  and  a  sort  of 
sailor  collar,  give  it  the  appearance  of  a  garment.  For 
going  abroad  at  night,  and  for  all  University  functions,  the 
gown  is  your  necessary  companion.  For  all  but  the  most 
formal  it  serves  for  that  academic  dress  which  by  rule 
includes,  not  only  gown,  but  cap  and  white  tie  as  well. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  183 

Once  returned  to  your  rooms,  desultory  guests  begin  to 
appear.  Breakfast  begins  at  last  before  an  imposing 
array  of  food.  Fish  with  strangely  colored  sauce,  sausage 
rolls  or  breaded  lamb  chops,  coffee  in  tall  silver  pots,  tea 
for  those  who  wish  it,  racks  of  toast,  ready  for  thick  but- 
ter and  jam  or  marmalade.  Conversation  is  as  plentiful 
as  food.  One  holds  forth  on  the  need  of  a  return  to  ways 
bucolic,  another  defends  the  new  lady  undergraduates,  a 
third  makes  sarcasms  on  his  don's  clothes  or  a  pernicious 
man  of  alien  fold — all  topics  from  politics  to  gossip  are 
touched  at  will.  After  food  is  done  and  smoke  has  filled 
the  room,  one  leaves  to  read  to  his  tutor  an  essay  which 
he  spent  last  night  in  writing.  The  rest  drift  away  grad- 
ually— the  last  waiting  until  the  morning  is  more  than 
half  gone.  You  have  just  time  to  make  the  two  lectures 
you  really  must  keep  abreast  of  this  term.  So  you  snatch 
up  your  gown  and  are  off  on  your  bicycle  for  a  distant 
college  hall. 

After  another  lecture  you  hurry  back  to  lunch  at  one, 
to  be  taken  in  solitary  state  at  one  end  of  your  table. 
This  may  be  a  meal  of  cold  meat,  bread  and  butter,  and 
ale  if  you  like;  but  the  average  undergraduate  takes 
little  but  bread  and  cheese,  and  possibly  a  fruit  tart  or 
something  similar.  For  lunch,  followed  immediately  by 
sport,  should  be  a  light  mieal. 

Throughout  the  afternoon  you  pull  an  oar,  play  rug- 
ger, swing  your  golf  clubs,  or  tennis  racket,  or  indulge  in 
some  other  sport  or  exercise  to  your  particular  taste.  By 
half-past-four  you  are  back  in  college,  and  ready  for  tea, 
in  your  own  room  alone  or  with  friends,  or  at  the  rooms  of 
another. 

Tea  in  Oxford,  as  in  all  England,  is  a  manly  affair,  and 


1 84  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

not  the  pink  nightmare  of  America.  It  is  not  delicate  ices, 
thin  brew,  and  fragile  wafers.  On  the  contrary  your 
host  will  give  you  thick  sandwiches,  crumpets,  Banbury 
buns,  buttered  toast,  bread  and  jam,  or  rich  fruit  cake — 
leaving  you  to  eat  as  much  or  as  many  as  you  like.  All 
these  may  keep  company  to  tea  brewed  well  and  strong. 
This  is  another  meal,  and  not  the  least  of  the  day.  And 
it  ranks  among  the  pleasantest  of  the  day's  occasions. 
Good  tea  gives  a  subtle  eloquence  to  the  tongue;  and 
witty  epigrams  and  noble  schemes  are  born  about  the 
stroke  of  five  in  Oxford. 

After  tea  friends  scatter,  and  you  repair  to  a  library 
or  to  your  rooms  for  reading  until  dinner.  This,  the 
fourth  meal,  is  taken  by  the  college  as  a  body,  in  a  large 
dining  hall  where  in  winter,  a  flickering  glow  from  the 
great  fireplaces  throws  strange  shadows  over  the  dim 
pictures  of  old  dignitaries  and  leaders  of  the  college  world. 
You  wear  your  gown,  and  sit  at  a  long  table  with  men  of 
your  year.  The  Scholars,  members  of  the  foundation, 
have  their  own  table;  and  across  the  head  of  the  hall 
is  a  dais  and  table  for  the  Head  of  the  college  and  the 
Fellows — who  dine  in  dinner  dress  and  long  gowns.  The 
high  lights  on  old  silver,  good  beef  or  mutton,  and  lively 
conversation  make  dinner  a  pleasing  occasion;  but  it  is 
perhaps  the  least  appreciated  meal  of  the  day  and  is  not 
lingered  over  by  the  undergraduates. 

After  dinner,  in  summer  term  in  the  long  English 
evening,  you  and  your  friends  may  adjourn  to  the  garden 
to  inquire  after  the  health  of  the  college  tortoise,  who 
by  report  knew  the  last  Stuart  king,  or  to  play  at  bowls 
on  the  velvet  lawn,  or  to  gather  about  a  garden  table  for 
cofifee  and  pipes. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  185 

At  this  early  stage  of  your  university  career  and  in 
summer  term,  there  is  too  httle  time  for  evening  study  in 
any  case.  You  may  go  to  the  theatre  or  to  a  club  meet- 
ing, being  careful  to  take  your  gown.  For  then  is  the 
hour  when  Proctors  walk  abroad  in  black  gowns,  with  a 
train  of  "bull-dogs"  recruited  from  fleet  townsmen,  ready 
to  run  an  offending  undergraduate  to  earth  and  hold  him 
for  the  sedate  approach  of  their  Proctor,  to  ask  his  name 
and  college  and  to  request  the  favor  of  a  call  on  the  follow- 
ing day.  Any  rag  or  fraction  of  a  gown,  however  tattered 
or  burnt  by  fire,  will  save  you  from  a  fine  on  that  score; 
and  presence  of  mind  may  make  one  gown  serve' for  two, 
and  cover  a  gownless  friend.  There  are  many  rules  of 
undergraduate  conduct  in  the  City;  infraction  if  caught 
means  at  least  a  proctorial  fine,  and  at  most,  dismissal. 

You  will  return  to  your  college  before  midnight.  After 
nine  o'clock  its  gate  is  closed,  but  will  be  opened  to  you 
in  consideration  of  a  small  fine,  increasing  with  the  late- 
ness of  the  hour.  But  after  micinight  it  will  not  be 
opened.  And  the  penalty  for  not  being  in  at  that  hour  is 
expulsion.  There  are  ways  over  eight-foot  walls  and 
chevaux-de-frise  and  broken  glass — there  are  airy  routes 
along  the  boughs;   but  at  best  they  are  uncertain. 

Back  in  your  rooms,  you  may  be  unable  to  retire  de- 
spite the  hour.  Friends  drop  in  for  a  short  talk  and  a 
pipeful  of  your  tobacco,  and  to  criticise  your  taste  in  mix- 
tures and  authors.  Solid  ideas  are  uttered  at  midnight. 
Would  that  your  tutor  might  hear  them!  But  the  night 
grows  and  friends  slip  off  to  bed;  and  you,  too,  lest 
morning  catch  you  lightheaded. 

What  have  you  accomplished? 

John  Masefield  in  a  pleasant  lecture  in  the  Schools 


1 86  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

gave  Oxford  undergraduates  a  vivid  picture  of  the  com- 
petition between  the  creative  artist  and  life:  one's  best 
drama  may  be  broken  hopelessly  by  a  quarrel  of  fish- 
women  outside  the  window;  two  dogs  may  fight,  and  ruin 
an  ode;  a  friend,  bursting  in,  may  wreck  a  sonnet.  But 
great  creators  can  compete  against  fishmongers,  dogs, 
and  friends.  You  will  not  forget,  even  in  the  Valley  of 
the  Shadow  of  Finals,  that  Aristotle  taught  the  lesson  of 
the  golden  mean,  for  you  achieved  that  conclusion  with 
girl  Commoners  whispering  on  your  one  extreme  and  a 
decrepit  Scholar  punctuating  his  reading  with  sneezes,  on 
your  other.  At  any  rate  you  have  been  master  of  your 
rooms  and  of  your  destiny.  Schools  are  still  two  years 
ahead,  and  many  days  of  hard  work;  but  summer  term 
in  your  first  year  is  the  time  for  friends  and  exchange  of 
ideas.    Your  life  will  never  know  another  such  time. 

Thus,  in  his  comings  and  goings  amid  this  active  life 
the  undergraduate  may  happen  upon  the  lasting  life  of  the 
University  behind  her  life  ephemeral.  Behind  her  pag- 
eantry of  cricket,  crew,  and  football,  behind  study  that 
becomes  her  youth  like  a  dream  and  the  dreaming  that 
makes  all  things  golden,  behind  the  careless  luxury  of 
years  all  promise  and  goodwill,  behind  her  gifts  of 
friendship  and  happiness,  there  is  an  enduring  secret 
charm.  Perhaps  no  one  may  describe  the  real  worth  of 
Oxford;  like  things  of  beauty,  she  eludes,  to  tempt  men 
still.  And  there  is  symbolism  in  her  towers;  for  most  of 
their  days  they  stand  half-veiled  in  haze  or  clouds  of 
opalescent  rain;  even  from  the  High,  St.  Mary's  spire 
rises  aloof,  unreal.  Some  faultless  April  afternoon,  from 
Hinksey  Hill  or  Wytham  Wood,  one  comes  at  last  upon 


SOCIAL  LIFE  AND  ACTIVITIES  187 

the  view  of  all  the  white  glory  of  the  City, — but  even  as 
he  gazes  the  mists  obscure  the  Vision.  And  so  it  is  with 
the  secret  which  inspires  her  life.  It  can  be  learned  only 
by  living  in  it,  and  can  be  told  only  to  those  who  have 
seen. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CECIL  JOHN  RHODES 
I 853-1 902 

By  George  Van  Santvoord,  B.  Litt.,  Connecticut  and 

Oriel,  '13 

During  the  years  between  1873  and  1881,  the  lecturers 
at  Oriel  College  in  the  University  of  Oxford  were  occasion- 
ally annoyed  by  a  tall  fair-haired  boy  who  diverted  the 
attention  of  their  auditors  by  passing  among  them  for 
inspection  handfuls  of  uncut  diamonds.  The  offender 
was  Cecil  John  Rhodes. 

In  the  quiet  country  parsonage  where  he  had  grown  up 
the  dominating  personality  had  been  his  father,  a  shrewd 
old  vicar  famed  for  his  beautiful  reading  and  the  terse 
ten-minute  sermons  he  preached  to  an  appreciative 
congregation.  The  vicar  hoped  all  his  seven  sons  would 
follow  in  his  footsteps  and  become  parsons;  but  to  his 
disappointment  tlieir  natural  tastes  prevailed,  and  one 
by  one  they  drifted  away  into  the  Army  or  other  more 
adventurous  careers.  Like  the  rest,  Cecil,  the  fifth  son, 
had  contemplated  entering  the  Church.  At  school  he  won 
a  medal  for  elocution,  which  seemed  to  show  that  he  was 
suited  for  holy  orders.  But  symptoms  of  consumption 
decided  his  father  that  the  boy  needed  a  long  sea-voyage, 
so  at  the  age  of  17  he  was  sent  out  to  join  his  brother 
Herbert,  who  was  experimenting  with  cotton-growing 
in  the  remote  colony  of  Natal. 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  .  189 

Three  years  in  South  Africa  transformed  Rhodes  from 
a  shy  angular  lad  in  precarious  health  into  a  vigorous 
able  man.  The  first  months  he  spent  on  his  brother's  farm, 
planting  cotton,  clearing  new  land  of  its  dense  brush, 
and  during  his  spare  hours  reading  his  classics  against 
the  time  when  he  should  return  to  England  to  enter  the 
University.  He  lived  in  a  tiny  hut  in  the  bush,  working 
out  of  doors  most  of  the  day.  For  long  periods  during 
his  brother's  absence  he  had  full  charge  of  the  farm  and 
its  Kaffir  laborers.  Business  capacity,  respect  for  the 
dignity  of  labor,  and  experience  with  the  natives  that 
gave  him  rare  insight  into  African  character — all  these 
he  gained  before  the  failure  of  their  cotton  crops  and  an 
extraordinar>^  opportunity  in  the  north  lured  the  brothers 
away  from  their  plantation  in  Natal. 

Diamonds  had  been  discovered  in  the  Orange  River 
country  and  on  every  tongue  were  marvelous  tales  of 
fortunes  in  the  making  or  already  made.  The  brothers 
packed  up  their  possessions  and  Herbert  set  out  ahead 
to  secure  a  claim,  leaving  Cecil  to  follow  more  slowly 
with  his  Greek  lexicon  and  the  mining  tools  in  a  lumbering 
ox-cart.  So  Cecil  made  the  400-mile  journey  across  the 
lonely  upland  country  to  Kimberly  all  alone.  It  gave  him 
abundant  opportunity  for  reading  and  meditation.  As 
he  went  inland  he  began  slowly  to  ascend  the  great 
central  plateau  of  Africa — the  "high  veldt",  with  its  broad 
open  plains,  clear  air,  and  starry  nights,  so  like  those 
of  our  own  West.  Here  he  met  his  first  Boers,  descendants 
of  the  Dutch  farmers  who  had  trekked  up  from  Cape 
Colony  to  found  their  Orange  Free  State  and  South 
African  Republic  soon  after  the  old  Dutch  settlement 
at  the  Cape  had  been  taken  over  by  the  English  during 


I90  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  Napoleonic  Wars.  To  Rhodes  who  knew  only  the 
semi-tropical  colony  of  Natal,  with  its  homogeneous 
British  population,  all  this  was  new  and  fascinating,  and 
he  came  to  love  the  veldt  with  its  broad  sunny  spaces, 
and  to  respect  the  honest  Dutch  burghers. 

At  the  end  of  the  journey  he  found  Herbert's  claims  at 
Colesburg  Kopje,  or  New  Rush,  as  the  swarms  of  diggers 
had  christened  it.  In  a  letter  to  his  mother  he  gives  a 
good  picture  of  the  scene  as  it  appeared  from  his  tent: 
"Imagine  a  small  round  hill,  at  its  very  highest  part  only 
30  feet  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  country;  all 
round  it  a  mass  of  white  tents.  .  .  .  [It]  is  like  an 
immense  number  of  ant-heaps  covered  with  black  ants 
as  thick  as  can  be,  the  latter  represented  by  human 
beings.  There  are  about  600  claims  on  the  kopje 
and  .  .  .  about  ten  thousand  [men]  working  every 
day  on  a  piece  of  ground  180  yards  by  220." 

In  such  surroundings  the  brothers  worked  their  claim. 
Herbert's  restless  spirit  soon  found  mining  irksome,  and 
he  often  drifted  away,  leaving  his  younger  brother  in 
charge.  It  was  no  easy  school  for  a  boy  of  18,  to  hold 
his  own  among  the  crowd  of  rough  diggers,  to  watch 
over  a  valuable  claim  and  manage  a  crowd  of  barbarous 
natives  always  intent  on  stealing  diamonds  and  ready 
for  any  mischief.  There  men  saw  him  on  his  claim,  sitting 
on  an  overturned  bucket, — "a  tall  fair  boy,  blue-eyed, 
with  somewhat  aquiline  features,  wearing  flannels  of  the 
school  playing-field  somewhat  shrunken  with  strenuous 
rather  than  effectual  washing".  Yet  this  boy  soon 
learned  his  new  game,  so  that  no  one  was  more  skillful  at 
it  than  he.  The  New  Rush  was  the  preparatory  school 
from  which  he  entered  Oxford  in  1873. 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  191 

Probably  no  such  undergraduate  had  been  at  Oriel 
since  the  day,  some  300  years  before,  when  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  had  left  college,  with  his  dreams  of  finding  the 
treasure  of  El  Dorado,  and  of  founding  an  "Inglishe 
nation"  in  America.  His  fellows  did  not  understand  him 
at  first  and  found  him  rather  hard  and  cynical.  He  was 
constantly  worried  about  his  claims,  and  more  than  once 
he  was  uncomfortably  near  the  end  of  his  resources. 
More  disquieting  still  was  a  recurrence  of  his  old  lung- 
trouble,  so  serious  that  his  doctor's  dictum  was  that  he 
had  "only  six  months  to  live".  But  Rhodes's  determined 
wnW  never  wavered.  For  ill-health  or  financial  difficulties 
his  remedy  was  the  same — recuperation  in  South  Africa. 

Yet  he  found  at  Oxford  something  so  precious  that  he 
returned  there  again  and  again  until  he  had  kept  all  his 
terms  and  qualified  for  his  degree.  It  was  partly  the 
visible  results  of  the  Oxford  training  that  impressed  him. 
As  he  expressed  it  later  in  his  life:  "The  Oxford  system  in 
its  finished  form  looks  very  unpractical.  Yet  wherever 
you  turn  your  eye — except  in  science — an  Oxford  man  is 
at  the  top  of  the  tree."  But  more  than  this  it  was  the 
spirit  of  Oxford  that  laid  hold  of  his  imagination.  In  his 
college  he  was  not  a  very  familiar  figure,  though  he 
rowed  a  little,  played  polo,  was  master  of  the  drag-hounds 
and  belonged  to  some  of  the  most  exclusive  clubs,  like  the 
Bullingdon  and  Vincent's.  Still  less  was  he  a  "grind",  for 
he  writes  his  friends  of  his  "tremendous  skirmishes"  with 
the  dons,  who  at  times  were  in  despair  over  his  desultory 
methods  of  study.  Yet  through  it  all  he  was  finding  what 
he  wanted  at  Oxford — time  for  talking,  reading,  thinking. 
His  friends  were  mostly  quiet  men  who  kept  to  them- 
selves; many  of  them  later  became  prominent  in  politics 


192  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

and  business,  and  with  them  he  loved  to  discuss  some  of 
the  great  questions  which  were  interesting  him— the 
eternal  questions  of  politics  and  government,  and  of 
man's  end  in  life. 

In  his  reading  he  found  satisfactory  answers  to  some  of 
these  questions.  Aristotle's  Ethics,  for  centuries  the 
cornerstone  of  education  at  Oxford,  impressed  upon  him 
the  conception  of  virtue  as  the  "desire  for  the  exercise  of 
the  human  faculties  in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  the 
highest  excellence  in  the  best  circumstances".  Gibbon's 
picture  of  Rome  as  the  great  source  of  civilizing  and 
stabilizing  power  interested  him  hugely,  and  suggested 
a  worthier  aim  for  his  own  country  than  mere  commercial 
prosperity.  And  joined  with  these  two  there  came  a 
third  teacher  in  the  person  of  John  Ruskin,  whose  great 
Inaugural  Lecture  with  its  appeal  to  the  youth  of  England 
Rhodes  held  as  one  of  his  most  precious  possessions. 

Rhodes  was  28  years  old  before  he  took  his  degree  at 
Oxford.  Of  the  eight  years  since  his  matriculation  he  had 
spent  about  five  in  South  Africa,  partly  to  regain  his 
health,  partly  to  watch  over  the  fortunes  of  his  mines. 
Matters  had  been  moving  swiftly  in  the  diamond  fields 
during  those  years.  Overproduction  had  lowered  profits 
very  considerably  and  many  of  the  diggers  were  getting 
discouraged.  The  tiny  area  of  "yellow  dirt"  in  which 
the  stones  were  found  was  so  honeycombed  with  diggings 
that  the  walls  of  the  pits  began  to  fall  in,  burying  the 
remaining  diamonds  deeper  than  ever  beneath  the  debris, 
and  to  add  to  their  troubles  water  began  to  flood  the  pits 
from  below. 

In  all  these  difihculties  Rhodes  saw  only  opportunity. 
One  by  one  he  bought  up  the  claims  of  the  men  who  were 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  193 

discouraged  and  ready  to  quit.  While  the  owners  of 
flooded  mines  were  waiting  for  machinery  to  arrive  from 
England,  he  located  a  Boer  farmer  who  had  a  pump  for 
irrigating  his  farm.  The  Dutchman  was  determined  to 
keep  his  pump,  but  to  rid  himself  of  Rhodes's  importuni- 
ties he  named  what  he  thought  a  prohibitive  sum — and 
Rhodes  bought  it,  though  it  took  all  his  ready  money. 
He  had  to  persuade  another  old  Boer  to  transport 
the  pump  to  the  mines  on  his  mere  promise  to  pay 
him.  Rhodes  never  forgot  the  honesty  and  trustfulness 
of  this  old  fellow,  and  used  to  date  his  sympathy  for  the 
Dutch  race  as  beginning  with  this  experience. 

From  such  incidents  it  is  easy  to  understand  why 
Rhodes  succeeded  in  the  diamond  fields.  Evidently  his 
neighbors  recognized  his  character  and  ability,  for  when 
Griqualand  was  annexed  to  Cape  Colony  in  1880  and 
given  two  seats  in  its  Assembly,  the  voters  promptly 
chose  Rhodes  to  represent  one  of  the  constituencies. 
Boer  farmers  and  the  cosmopolitan  population  around 
the  mines  seemed  equally  to  admire  and  trust  him,  and 
he  was  returned  to  represent  Barkley  West,  election  after 
election,  until  his  death. 

Clad  in  his  Oxford  tweeds  Rhodes  must  have  come  as 
something  of  a  shock  to  the  rather  stately  assembly  at 
Cape  Town,  where  many  of  the  old  Dutch  members 
dressed  formally  in  black.  But  they  and  their  taciturn 
leader,  Jan  Hofmeyr,  whom  they  called  "the  Mole",  soon 
came  to  look  on  the  young  Englishman  as  a  friend  and 
ally.  At  first  he  took  little  part  in  the  debates,  quietly 
studying  commercial  and  political  questions  and  making 
friends  with  the  leaders.  Gradually  he  became  prominent. 
One  of  his  contemporaries  describes  him  in  the  Assembly 


194  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

as  "tall,  broadshouldered,  with  face  and  figure  of  some- 
what loose  formation.  His  hair  was  auburn,  carelessly 
flung  over  his  forehead,  his  eyes  of  bluish  gray,  dreamy  but 
kindly.  But  the  mouth — aye,  that  was  the  unruly  member 
of  his  face, — with  deep  lines  following  the  curve  of  the 
moustache,  it  had  a  determined,  masterful,  and  some- 
times scornful  expression.  .  .  .  His  style  of  speak- 
ing was  straight  and  to  the  point.  He  was  not  a  hard 
hitter  in  debate,  rather  a  persuader,  reasoning  and 
pleading  in  a  conversational  way  as  one  more  anxious  to 
convince  an  opponent  than  to  expose  his  weakness.  He 
used  little  gesture;  what  there  was,  was  most  expressive, 
his  hands  held  behind  him,  or  thrust  out,  sometimes 
passed  over  his  brow". 

All  this  time  he  was  devoting  a  good  deal  of  thought  to 
his  mining,  introducing  better  machinery  and  purchasing 
the  claims  adjoining  his  own,  till  by  1887  he  controlled  the 
whole  area  of  the  "nice  little  mine"  he  had  described  to 
his  mother  in  1871.  Characteristically  he  named  it  "De 
Beers"  after  the  old  Boer  farmer  who  had  owned  the 
land  originally. 

The  danger  of  the  whole  industry  being  ruined  by 
competition  was  always  in  his  mind.  Each  year,  accord- 
ing to  his  calculations,  there  was  a  market  for  about 
£4,000,000  worth  of  diamonds — and  no  more.  Over- 
production would  mean  only  that  prices  would  fall,  and 
the  only  possible  solution  for  the  miners  was  amalgama- 
tion of  all  the  mines,  so  that  production  and  prices  could 
be  regulated.  In  the  way  of  such  a  scheme  stood  a  clever 
Jew  called  Barney  Barnato,  who  had  gained  control  of 
the  mines  at  Kimberley,  much  as  Rhodes  had  done  with 
De  Beers.   Both  men  were  determined  to  win  control  of 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  195 

the  entire  industry,  and  a  bitter  struggle  began  between 
them.  After  a  fierce  contest  Barnato  was  downed,  and 
forced  into  amalgamation  with  the  organization  of  the 
De  Beers  Consolidated  Mines.  Rhodes's  masterful  will 
prevailed  against  Barnato's  opposition  even  in  the  details 
of  incorporation  of  the  new  company,  so  that  it  was  not 
merely  a  mining  concern,  but  might  engage  in  almost 
any  sort  of  enterprise — building  railroads  or  telegraph 
lines,  banking,  and  even  raising  armed  forces  to  protect 
its  lands.  "No  one  else  in  the  world,"  said  Barnato, 
"could  have  induced  me  to  go  into  this  partnership.  But 
Rhodes  is  an  extraordinary  man;  he  tied  me  up  as  he 
ties  up  everybody.   It  is  his  way.  You  can't  resist  him." 

For  Rhodes  the  way  was  now  clear  for  undertaking  all 
sorts  of  schemes.  Gold  mining  in  the  Transvaal  had  been 
developing  rapidly,  and  the  holdings  he  acquired  there, 
combined  with  the  profits  from  De  Beers,  provided  him 
with  abundant  means.  This  gave  him  added  power  in 
working  for  the  great  object  he  had  come  to  look  on  as 
his  main  purpose — the  extension  of  British  influence  into 
the  interior  of  Africa. .  And  his  friendship  with  Hofmeyr 
and  support  of  the  policy  of  the  "Africander  Bond"  in 
encouraging  agriculture  in  South  Africa  had  given  him 
the  needed  political  strength. 

Four  >'ears  before  the  struggle  with  Barnato  he  had 
seen  the  peril  threatening  the  British  expansion  in  the 
north.  On  the  northeast  the  Dutch  Republics  barred 
the  way.  On  the  northwest  was  the  danger,  soon  to  be 
realized,  of  German  occupation.  Only  a  narrow  lane 
to  the  interior  lay  between.  If  the  "neck  of  the 
bottle"  were  once  closed,  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  would 
be  left  precariously  on  the  tip  of  the  continent,  and  all 
hope  of  expansion  would  be  ended.   Just  in  time  Rhodes 


196  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

dashed  in.  Squatters  from  the  Transvaal  and  native 
chiefs  were  wavering  until  he  arrived  and  persuaded  them 
to  accept  British  rule  under  the  Crown.  A  tactless 
British  officer  nearly  undid  all  his  work  by  angering  the 
fiery  Boer  General  Delarey,  so  that  he  declared  ominously 
— "Blood  must  flow!"  But  Rhodes  was  on  the  spot  in  time, 
and  persuaded  the  Dutchman  that  they  should  have 
breakfast  together  before  talking  about  blood.  Delarey 
was  so  charmed  with  his  guest  that  he  kept  Rhodes  with 
him  for  a  week  and  invited  him  to  act  as  godfather  to  his 
grandchild. 

So  the  corridor  to  the  interior  was  saved.  But  Rhodes 
was  not  satisfied.  To  him  the  interior  of  Africa  with  its 
vast  territory  given  over  to  the  savages,  its  waste  of 
nature,  and  its  contempt  of  human  life,  was  a  perpetual 
challenge.  "It  is  inevitable  fate  that  all  this  should  be 
changed",  he  told  his  friends,  "and  I  should  like  to  be  the 
agent  of  fate."  He  longed  to  see  the  whole  country  opened 
to  civilization.  Even  a  map  of  it  fascinated  him,  for 
every  region  was  as  familiar  to  him  as  if  he  had  seen  it; 
his  friends  loved  to  "get  him  on  the  map"  and  let  him 
talk,  while  they  listened  as  charmed  as  was  Desdemona 
at  the  stories  of  Othello's  wanderings.  "Homes,  more 
homes — that's  what  I'm  working  for!",  he  would  tell  them 
at  the  end  of  his  discourse. 

One  last  formidable  obstacle  in  his  way  was  the  savage 
tribe  of  the  Matabele,  the  greatest  military  power  in 
Africa  since  the  destruction  of  the  Zulus.  To  their  king, 
Lobengula,  Rhodes  now  sent  his  friend  Dr.  Jameson  as 
an  ambassador,  promising  £ioo  a  month  for  the  king 
and  rifles  and  ammunition  for  his  warriors  in  return 
for   mining   privileges.    Lobengula   is  described   as   an 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  197 

impressive  old  fellow:  "A  somewhat  grotesque  costume 
of  four  yards  of  blue  calico  over  his  shoulders  and  a  string 
of  tigers'  tails  around  his  waist  could  not  make  his 
imposing  figure  ridiculous.  In  his  early  days  he  was  an 
athlete  and  a  fine  shot,  and  though,  as  years  went  on, 
his  voracious  appetite  rendered  him  conspicuously  obese, 
he  was  every  inch  a  ruler."  He  was  kind  to  the  few 
Europeans  who  came  to  his  country  and  had  received 
from  them  a  variety  of  gifts  ranging  from  opera  hats  to 
"champagne  enough  to  float  a  battleship"!  Dr.  Jameson 
was  an  old  friend  of  Lobengula  and  had  cured  him  of  his 
gout  on  a  previous  visit;  so  the  king  readily  received  him 
at  his  royal  kraal  and  agreed  to  allow  prospecting  in  his 
kingdom,  and  later  to  permit  an  expedition  to  be  sent 
far  to  the  north  of  his  territory. 

This  gave  Rhodes  the  chance  he  had  been  longing  for. 
From  the  English  Government  he  secured  a  charter  for 
a  great  company  for  opening  up  the  northern  territory. 
Not  since  the  days  of  the  East  India  and  Hudson's  Bay 
Companies  had  so  great  an  undertaking  been  chartered, 
for  it  had  power  to  build  railroads  and  telegraph  lines, 
to  encourage  colonization  and  trade,  and  even  to  police 
and  govern  the  country  when  it  had  been  opened.  The 
Duke  of  Abercorn  and  Earl  Grey  consented  to  be  directors 
of  the  new  company,  and  Rhodes  had  no  trouble  in 
interesting  the  British  public  in  his  enterprise. 

Meantime  he  made  haste  to  fit  out  an  expedition  to 
enter  the  northern  territory  and  to  make  an  actual 
settlement  before  Lobengula  should  change  his  mind  or 
his  warriors  should  get  out  of  hand  and  interfere.  In 
June,  1890,  his  column  of  pioneers  and  police  set  out  on 
its   perilous   400-mile  journey   through   the  wilderness, 


198  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

guided  by  a  few  hunters  and  explorers  who  knew  some- 
thing of  the  country.  Three  months  later  they  arrived  at 
their  destination  and  hoisted  the  British  flag  over  what  is 
now  Salisbury,  the  capital  of  Rhodesia. 

Rhodes  himself  had  not  been  able  to  go  with  his 
expedition.  There  had  been  a  cabinet  crisis  at  Cape 
Town  and  he  was  chosen  as  Prime  Minister  to  form  a  new 
Government.  For  five  years,  the  busiest  period  of  all  his 
busy  life,  he  held  this  office,  besides  continuing  to  direct 
his  mining  interests  and  finding  time  as  well  to  guide  his 
Chartered  Company  in  opening  up  the  great  territory 
which  was  soon  to  be  named  after  him. 

Possession  of  this  territory  was  an  enormous  advantage 
to  him  in  working  for  his  object — the  federation  of  all 
the  scattered  Dutch  and  English  settlements  into  one 
great  South  African  Union.  Against  him  stood  the 
republican  sentiment  in  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange 
Free  State,  where  the  Dutch  burghers  were  determined 
to  keep  their  independence  and  their  own  flags;  and  in 
Cape  Colony  and  Natal  indifference  and  provincialism 
were  nearly  as  hard  to  overcome. 

As  Prime  Minister,  Rhodes  followed  a  broad  policy, 
striving  to  encourage  a  national  sentiment  by  customs- 
regulations,  by  better  means  of  communication,  and  by 
schools  where  the  young  people  of  the  different  colonies 
should  come  together.  By  all  these  means  he  hoped  to 
work  toward  the  social  and  intellectual  union  of  the 
colonies.  And  through  his  friendship  with  Hofmeyr  and 
the  Dutch,  his  hopes  seemed  to  be  on  the  way  to  realiza- 
tion. Even  the  troublesome  native  problems  he  attacked 
in  the  famous  Glen  Gray  Act,  one  of  the  most  courageous 
attempts  in  modern  times  to  train  a  backward  people  for 
life  in  a  complex  civilized  state. 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  199 

Meantime  Rhodes  was  coming  to  be  known  beyond 
South  Africa.  Queen  Victoria  was  anxious  to  see  the  man 
who  was  working  so  well  for  the  Empire, and  his  secretary, 
Jourdain,  tells  entertainingly  of  Rhodes's  visit  to  Windsor 
and  the  Queen's  acceptance  of  a  photograph  of  him  in  his 
customary  flannels,  taken  far  out  on  the  veldt. 

Another  side  of  his  life  was  seen  only  by  visitors  to 
Cape  Town.  There  in  the  shadow  of  Table  Mountain 
he  had  bought  an  old  Dutch  house  called  "Groote  Schuur". 
Built  in  the  early  colonial  style,  with  thatched  roofs  and 
spreading  eaves,  it  seemed  to  him  the  embodiment  of 
all  that  a  house  should  be  in  that  part  of  the  world ;  and 
when  it  burned  in  a  disastrous  fire  he  got  a  rising  young 
architect  to  rebuild  it  in  the  old  style.  Here  he  would  sit 
on  his  "stoep",  watching  the  shadows  or  the  mists  in  the 
"kloofs"  of  the  great  mountain;  and  little  by  little  he 
bought  up  the  land  about  it  to  serve  as  a  park  for  the 
people  of  Cape  Town. 

People  often  abused  his  hospitality.  Sometimes  they 
even  came  into  his  house  to  order  refreshments.  But  he 
was  determined  that  the  public  should  be  allowed  to 
enjoy  the  grandeur  of  the  mountain,  and  he  wanted  them 
to  see  the  lions,  zebras,  and  other  rare  animals  that  he 
had  sent  down  from  the  north  and  kept  on  the  estate. 
Like  Thomas  Jefferson  he  was  intensely  interested  in 
finding  new  and  useful  animals  and  plants  for  naturaliza- 
tion. From  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  he  secured  Angora  goats 
from  the  famous  royal  herds;  his  friend  Kitchener  sent 
him  Egyptian  donkeys;  and  Californian  fruit-growers 
came  to  advise  his  farmers  on  new  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion. Little  wonder  that  the  Boer  farmers  thronged  in  to 
see  one  who  was  so  interested  in  their  welfare. 


200  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

But  Groote  Schuur  was  no  less  fascinating  to  other 
visitors.  The  old  Dutch  inhabitants  found  in  his  house  a 
marvelous  collection  of  colonial  furniture,  and  china  and 
glass  brought  out  from  France  by  the  Huguenots  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  scholar  straying  into  his 
panelled  library  found  rare  maps  and  books  about  the 
history  of  Africa,  and  in  one  section  what  Rhodes  called 
his  greatest  extravagance,  springing  from  his  enthusiasm 
for  Gibbon — original  translations  of  the  Roman  histori- 
ans, typewritten  and  bound  in  uniform  volumes.  From 
all  over  the  world  visitors  came  to  see  him — Oxford 
undergraduates.  Salvation  Army  workers,  Jesuit  priests, 
American  mining  engineers,  English  statesmen — and 
all  were  welcome. 

It  was  at  Groote  Schuur  at  the  very  height  of  his 
success  and  happiness  that  Rhodes  made  the  great  mis- 
take that  ended  his  political  life.  For  years  President 
Kruger  and  his  Dutch  burghers  in  the  South  African 
Republic  had  resisted  all  his  efforts  at  conciliation. 
Fearful  of  losing  poHtical  control  of  their  country,  they 
had  treated  their  immigrant  "Uitlanders"  so  badly  that 
there  were  constant  threatenings  of  revolution  in  the 
Transvaal.  Rhodes  thought  that  he  saw  a  chance  of 
ending  an  intolerable  state  of  affairs,  and  lent  his  support 
and  influence  to  a  scheme  for  interfering  in  behalf  of  the 
revolutionists.  Forces  were  concentrated  along  the  west 
border  of  the  Transvaal,  and  in  the  last  days  of  1895  they 
crossed  the  frontier  in  the  disastrous  expedition  that 
became  famous  as  "Jameson's  Raid". 

Kruger  had  been  growing  unpopular  with  everyone 
because  of  his  arbitrary  acts,  but  the  Raid  made  him  a 
hero.    The  German  Kaiser  sent  him  a  characteristically 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  201 

indiscreet  telegram  of  congratulation  on  repulsing  the 
attack.  The  Cape  Dutch  waited  in  vain  for  Rhodes  to 
issue  a  denial  of  complicity  in  a  plot  against  their  kins- 
men, till  Hofmeyr  was  convinced  that  he  was  guilty 
of  planning  it  and  sent  a  telegram  to  congratulate  Kruger. 
The  English  Government  officially  declared  its  dis- 
approval of  this  conspiracy  against  a  friendly  state,  and 
Rhodes  was  left  alone  in  his  disgrace. 

As  Prime  Minister  of  Cape  Colony  and  Director  of  the 
Chartered  Company,  he  had  erred  in  countenancing  an 
attempt  to  overthrow  a  friendly  government.  Probably 
we  shall  never  know  what  his  motive  was.  Perhaps  he 
thought  that  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the  British  Colonial 
Secretary',  knew  and  approved  of  the  scheme;  perhaps 
he  had  decided  that  his  old  conciliatory  methods  were 
useless  in  dealing  with  so  obstinate  an  opponent  as 
Kruger;  certainly  his  friends  had  been  noticing  in  him  a 
growing  impatience  and  arrogance  which  made  him  all 
too  reckless  and  eager  to  accomplish  his  ends  by  the 
readiest  way.  The  Raid  was  both  a  symptom  of  this,  and 
to  some  degree  a  lesson  to  him  of  the  consequences  of  his 
new  methods.  For  at  one  stroke,  by  alienating  the  whole 
Dutch  party,  he  had  undone  the  work  of  a  lifetime. 
They  would  never  again  trust  him  as  a  leader.  To  his 
friends  Rhodes  admitted  that  he  had  done  wrong.  But  he 
always  felt  that  the  English  politicians,  for  all  their 
"unctuous  rectitude",  would  have  applauded  his  act  if  it 
had  succeeded,  and  he  never  made  a  public  apology  for 
his  part  in  the  Raid. 

During  the  rest  of  his  life  his  greatest  interest  was  in 
Rhodesia.  The  picture  his  bigraphers  give  of  him  there 
is  a  most 'attractive  one — dressed  in  his  loose  white  flan- 


202  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

nels,  riding  his  favorite  pony,  and  camping  at  night  on 
the  open  veldt  in  a  sort  of  van,  with  a  devoted  colored 
servant  to  do  the  cooking  and  a  couple  of  hero-worship- 
ping secretaries  to  write  his  letters  for  him.  In  this  way 
he  travelled  about  visiting  his  pioneer  settlers,  talking 
over  their  grievances  with  them,  and  cheering  them  witlt 
his  ready  sympathy.  One  finds  extraordinary  stories  of 
his  generosity  to  those  of  them  who  were  in  trouble.  His 
bankers  were  in  constant  distress  over  his  habit  of  making 
out  checks  on  loose  bits  of  paper  torn  from  his  notebook. 
He  told  Grey  he  had  once  refused  to  help  a  man,  who 
in  despair  went  ofif  and  killed  himself;  after  that  he 
never  refused  aid  to  anyone. 

Rhodes  was  at  his  best  with  his  settlers.  "Here,"  he 
told  them,  "you  have  the  proud  satisfaction  that  you  are 
civilizing  a  new  part  of  the  world.  Those  who  fall  in  that 
creation  fall  sooner  than  they  would  in  ordinary  life,  but 
their  lives  are  nobler  and  grander."  They  felt  the  truth 
of  his  words  and  repaid  his  admiration  with  love  and 
respect.  Their  faith  in  him  was  justified  in  a  most  spec- 
tacular way  when  the  last  great  Matabele  rebellion  broke 
out  in  Rhodesia  in  1896.  Troops  and  police  were  helpless 
against  a  foe  who  retired  into  the  rocky  fastnesses  of  the 
Matoppo  Hills,  and  threatened  interminable  guerilla 
warfare.  Rhodes  succeeded  in  restoring  peace  where  an 
army  would  have  failed.  He  sent  a  message  to  the  sav- 
ages that  he  wanted  to  have  an  "indaba"  or  council  with 
them,  and  with  only  six  companions  he  rode  out  into 
their  hills  virtually  unarmed.  At  the  very  first  indaba  the 
young  warriors  were  so  threatening  and  brandished  their 
assegais  so  fiercely  that  his  companions  thought  they 
would  never  escape  alive;  but  Rhodes  soon  quieted  them 


' . ',  '     '  •• «  I       «   ■>  t.  * 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  203 

and  began  talking.  Once  he  could  "sit  down  and  argue 
with  a  man"  he  usually  had  his  way,  whether  the  man 
were  the  Boer  Delarey,  the  Jew  Barnato,  or  the  Matabele 
chief  Babyan. 

The  savage  mind  worked  slowly,  and  it  took  two 
months  of  talk  to  convince  them.  One  of  his  companions 
describes  him  sitting  "day  after  day  in  the  blazing  sun 
talking  to  the  chiefs  and  cracking  jokes  with  them  until 
we  were  all  tired  to  death  with  them.  It  was  a  great 
pleasure  to  watch  him  while  these  informal  indabas  were 
going  on.  He  would  chafT  and  tease  the  chiefs,  and  some- 
times one  almost  fancied  he  was  one  of  them  by  the  way 
he  adapted  himself  to  their  customs.  His  face  would  beam 
all  over  when  he  had  the  best  of  an  argument  and  had 
them  in  a  comer."  His  patience  and  perseverance  pre- 
vailed in  the  end,  and  the  chiefs  declared  for  peace. 
"We  shall  call  you  always  the  Separator  of  Fighting 
Bulls,"  they  told  him.  "You  are  our  father,  our  friend, 
and  our  protector,  and  to  you  we  shall  look  in  the  years 
that  are  coming".  So  he  saved  Rhodesia  from  a  ruinous 
war.  Many  of  his  friends  told  him  he  had  won  the 
greatest  victory  of  his  life.  His  own  comment  on  it  one 
day  after  a  long  indaba  was  merely:  "It  is  such  days  that 
make  life  worth  living". 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  Rhodes  had  a  few  peaceful 
quiet  years  before  his  death — a  period  which  Mr.  Basil 
Williams  calls  his  "St.  Martin's  Summer".  His  part  in  the 
Raid  was  fast  being  forgotten;  the  English  public  was 
all  enthusiasm  for  him  when  he  went  to  London;  his 
old  University  conferred  on  him  an  honorary  degree,  and 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  it  in  company  with 
his  friend  Lord  Kitchener.    After  the  ceremony  he  was 


204  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

delighted  by  a  rousing  reception  at  his  old  College.  Yet 
through  these  last  years  he  felt  that  life  was  all  too  short 
and  that  the  end  was  near.  One  sees  this  in  his  feverish 
anxiety  to  push  his  telegraph  line  through  to  Egypt — a 
project  which  led  to  his  celebrated  interview  with  the 
German  Emperor.  It  is  shown  again  in  his  longing  to  see 
the  Victoria  Falls,  where  his  railway  was  one  day  to 
cross  the  Zambesi.  "I  want  to  get  there  at  once",  he 
used  to  say — "there  is  little  satisfaction  in  knowing  that 
the  railway  will  reach  there  after  one's  death".  And  it  is 
no  less  evident  in  his  practical  withdrawal  from  politics, 
leaving  to  others  the  working  out  of  his  dearest  object — 
the  Union  of  South  Africa. 

So  when  President  Kruger  had  his  way  at  last  and  the 
great  Boer  War  began,  no  one  could  accuse  Rhodes  this 
time  of  helping  to  bring  on  the  trouble.  Immediately  on 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  he  went  to  Kimberley  to  re- 
main through  the  four  months'  siege  by  the  Boers.  His 
imperious  temper  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  work  under 
any  superior,  most  of  all  under  a  malitary  officer;  yet  he 
rendered  valuable  service  in  organizing  relief  measures 
and  keeping  up  the  spirits  of  the  inhabitants.  And  amid 
all  the  fanatical  hatred  aroused  by  the  war  Rhodes  was 
one  of  the  few  Englishmen  who  saw  clearly  the  issues  of 
the  struggle.  "Let  there  be  no  vaunting  words",  he  told 
his  fellow  Englishmen  who  were  celebrating  their  vic- 
tories, "no  vulgar  triumph  over  your  Dutch  neighbors. 
Make  them  feel  the  bitterness  is  past  and  that  the  need  of 
co-operation  is  greater  than  ever.  Teach  your  children  to 
remember  when  they  go  to  the  village  school  that  the 
little  Dutch  boys  and  girls  they  find  sitting  on  the  same 
benches  with  them  are  as  much  a  part  of  South  Africa 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  205 

as  they  are  themselves,  and  that  as  they  learn  the  same 
lesson  together  now,  so  together  they  must  work,  com- 
rades for  a  common  object — the  good  of  South  Africa". 

Such  a  plea  Lincoln  might  have  made  amid  the  bitter- 
ness of  our  own  Civil  War;  and  like  Lincoln,  Rhodes 
was  taken  from  his  people  at  the  very  time  when  such  a 
spirit  was  most  needed.  His  heart  had  long  been  troubling 
him,  and  the  malady  gained  upon  him  with  dreadful 
rapidity.  He  made  a  trip  to  England  and  had  to  return 
to  testify  in  a  law-suit  at  Cape  Town,  but  was  too  ill  to 
appear  in  court.  After  terrible  agony  he  died  at  his  cot- 
tage at  Muizenberg,  on  the  26th  of  March,  1902,  in  his 
49th  year,  two  months  too  early  to  see  the  end  of  the 
great  struggle  he  had  so  lamented. 

Like  Mirabeau  on  his  death  bed,  a  sort  of  splendor 
came  over  Rhodes  as  he  lay  dying.  Long-estranged 
friends  like  Hofmeyr  were  won  to  sympathy  by  his 
sufferings,  realizing  that  it  was  a  giant  they  were  los- 
ing; and  thinking  perhaps  of  his  plea  at  Oriel  that  his 
life  and  actions  were  those  of  a  pioneer,  and  should  be 
weighed  with  those  of  men  who  lived  in  ages  when  vio- 
lence prevailed,  and  not  in  civilized  Europe  where  right 
and  equity  have  been  firmly  established.  And  like  the 
dying  Roman  Emperors  of  whom  Bacon  writes,  Rhodes 
seemed  to  sum  up  his  own  life's  creed  in  those  last  impres- 
sive words — "SoHttledone  .     .     .  so  much  to  do!" 

On  a  barren  mountain  top  far  in  the  heart  of  the 
Matoppos  he  was  buried.  There  old  Moselikatze,  King 
of  the  Matabele,  had  been  buried  long  before,  "seated 
upright  on  the  summits  of  his  kingdom,  so  that  even 
in  death  he  might  look  over  the  limitless  expanse  below 
him".   Coming  on  the  spot  Rhodes  had  christened  it  "the 


206  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

view  of  the  world",  and  had  chosen  it  for  his  own  burial 
place.  A  simple  bronze  slab  bearing  his  name  marks  the 
grave,  and  seven  giant  granite  boulders  stand  guard 
around  it. 

It  is  his  will  that  he  look  forth 

Across  the  land  he  won, 
The  granite  of  the  ancient  North, 

Great  spaces  washed  with  sun. 
There  shall  he  patient  make  his  seat 

(As  when  the  death  he  dared), 
And  there  await  a  people's  feet 

In  the  paths  that  he  prepared. 

There,  till  the  vision  he  foresaw 

Splendid  and  whole  arise. 
And  unimagined  Empires  draw 

To  council  'neath  his  skies. 
The  immense  and  brooding  spirit  still 

Shall  quicken  and  control. 
Living  he  was  the  land,  and  dead 

His  soul  shall  be  her  soul  I^ 

Not  until  after  his  death  did  many  people  realize  how 
far-reaching  was  Rhodes's  purpose.  The  South  Africa 
he  had  come  to  was  a  medley  of  isolated  communities, 
more  diverse  and  discordant  than  our  American  Colonies 
before  the  Revolution.  Rhodes  came,  like  Alexander 
Hamilton,  enough  of  a  foreigner  to  be  above  the  provin- 
cialism of  the  colonists.  His  affections,  like  Hamilton's, 
were  engrossed  by  the  whole  country  of  his  adoption,  not 
by  one  single  state,  and  he  devoted  the  best  part  of  his 
life  to  working  for  union.  In  many  respects  the  problem 
that  confronted  him  was  more  complex  than  the  one 

1  From  a  poem  by  Rudj^ard  Kipling,  read  at  Rhodes's  funeral. 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  207 

Hamilton  found.  Instead  of  a  single  homogeneous  people 
he  had  two  peoples,  of  different  races,  with  different 
languages,  different  traditions,  even  different  forms  of 
government,  and  living  under  different  flags.  And  as  an 
added  difficulty  there  was  the  barbarous  native  popula- 
tion, far  outnumbering  the  whites.  In  South  Africa  the 
problem  was  not  merely  how  to  effect  union,  but  hov/ 
to  save  civilization  itself. 

It  was  because  he  saw  this  that  Rhodes  had  labored  so 
long  to  bring  about  co-operation  between  the  Dutch  and 
English — in  his  work  with  Hofmeyr,  in  his  interest  in  the 
Boer  farmers,  in  his  insistence  on  "equal  rights  for  every 
civiUzed  man  south  of  the  Zambesi".  It  was  for  the  same 
reason  that  he  prized  South  Africa's  connection  with  the 
British  Empire,  with  its  great  Roman  tradition  of  "peace, 
industry,  and  freedom".  And  after  his  interview  with  the 
Kaiser  he  felt  he  could  count  on  the  Germans  to  work 
with  him  for  the  same  end.  In  a  world  still  full  of  bar- 
barism, cruelty,  and  waste,  what  else  could  bring  about 
the  victory  of  civilization  but  the  co-operation  of  all  who 
were  capable  of  fighting  for  it? 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  proof  of  Rhodes's  devotion 
to  these  ideals  is  to  be  found  in  his  now  celebrated  "Last 
Will  and  Testament",  the  sixth  he  had  made, — dated 
July  I,  1899.  There  his  contemporaries  read  with  aston- 
ishment of  the  bequest  of  Groote  Schuur  as  a  residence 
for  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  "Federation  of  South  Afri- 
can States",  of  his  gifts  to  Rhodesia,  and  of  his  generosity 
to  his  "old  college  of  Oriel". 

But  the  world  was  interested  most  of  all  in  the  fourth 
section  of  the  Will,  where  was  written  his  plan  for  pro- 
moting the  end  of  world-civilization  to  which  he  had 


208  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

devoted  his  life.  This  was  the  final  and  broadest  prac- 
tical expression  of  the  ideal  which  Rhodes  had  more 
crudely  stated  as  early  as  1877  in  a  will  drawn  when  he 
was  only  24  years  old.  It  set  up  a  trust  fund  of  approxi- 
mately £2,000,000  in  the  following  terms  :^ 

Whereas  I  consider  that  the  education  of  young  Colonists  at 
one  of  the  Universities  in  the  United  Kingdom  is  of  great  advan- 
tage to  them  for  giving  breadth  to  their  views  for  their  instruc- 
tion in  life  and  manners  and  for  instilling  into  their  minds  the 
advantage  to  the  Colonies  as  well  as  to  the  United  Kingdom  of 
the  retention  of  the  Unity  of  the  Empire.  And  whereas  in  the 
case  of  young  Colonists  studying  at  a  University  in  the  United 
Kingdom  I  attach  very  great  importance  to  the  University  hav- 
ing a  residential  system  such  as  is  in  force  at  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  for  without  it  those  students  are  at  the 
most  critical  period  of  their  lives  left  without  any  supervision. 
.  .  .  And  whereas  I  also  desire  to  encourage  and  foster  an 
appreciation  of  the  advantages  which  I  implicidy  believe  will 
result  from  the  union  of  the  English-speaking  peoples  throughout 
the  world  and  to  encourage  in  the  students  from  the  United 
States  of  America  who  will  benefit  from  the  American  Scholar- 
ships to  be  established  for  the  reason  above  given  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  under  this  my  Will  an  attachment  to  the  country 
from  which  they  have  sprung  without  I  hope  withdrawing  them 
or  their  sympathies  from  the  land  of  their  adopdon  or  birth. 
Now  therefore  I  direct  my  Trustees  ...  to  establish  for  male 
students  the  Scholarships  hereinafter  directed  to  be  established 
each  of  which  shall  be  of  the  yearly  value  of  £300  and  be  tenable 
at  any  College  in  the  University  of  Oxford  for  three  consecutive 
academical  years. 

I  direct  my  Trustees  to  establish  certain  Scholarships  .     .     . 

»  The  quotations  from  the  Will  are  given  exactly  as  the  Will  was 
written, — in  the  unpunctuated  sentences  characteristic  of  English  legal 
documents. 


CECIL  JOHN  RHODES  209 

as  "the  Colonial  Scholarships".  (Here  follows  a  list  of  60  scholar- 
ships apportioned  among  South  Africa,  Australasia,  Canada, 
and  other  parts  of  the  British  Empire.) 

I  further  direct  my  Trustees  to  establish  additional  Scholar- 
ships ...  as  "the  American  Scholarships". 

I  appropriate  two  of  the  American  Scholarships  to  each  of  the 
present  States  and  Territories  of  the  United  States  of  North 
Ameiica  .  .  .  (and)  direct  that  of  the  two  Scholarships 
appropriated  to  a  State  or  Territory  not  more  than  one  shall  be 
filled  up  in  any  year  so  that  at  no  time  shall  more  than  two 
Scholarships  be  held  for  the  same  State  or  Territory. 

By  codicil  executed  in  January,  1901,  after  stating  that 
the  German  Emperor  had  made  instruction  in  EngUsh 
compulsory  in  German  schools,  Rhodes  estabHshed  15 
scholarships  at  Oxford  for  students  of  German  birth,  to 
be  nominated  by  the  German  Emperor;  his  object,  as  he 
stated  it,  was  that  "a  good  understanding  between  the 
three  great  Powers  (England,  Germany,  and  the  United 
States)  will  render  war  impossible  and  educational  rela- 
tions make  the  strongest  tie".^ 

In  the  Will  itself  Rhodes  had  stated: 

I  desire  that  the  Scholars  holding  the  Scholarships  shall  be 
distributed  amongst  the  Colleges  of  the  University  of  Oxford 
and  not  resort  in  undue  numbers  to  one  or  more  Colleges  only. 

By  codicil  executed  October  11,  1901,  he  added 
directions  and  suggestions  to  guide  the  Trustees  in  the 
administration  of  the  Scholarships,  as  follows: 

My  desire  being  that  the  students  who  shall  be  elected  to  the 
Scholarships  shall  not  be  merely  bookworms  I  direct  that  in 

'The  German  Scholarships  were  abolished  by  Act  of  Parliament 
during  the  late  war,  and  the  Trustees  were  authorized  to  apply  the  funds 
so  released  to  establishing  additional  Colonial  Scholarships. 


2IO  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

the  election  of  a  student  to  a  Scholarship  regard  shall  be  had  to: 

(i)    his  literary  and  scholastic  attainments 

(ii)  his  fondness  for  and  success  in  manly  outdoor  sports  such 
as  cricket  football  and  the  like 

(iii)  his  qualities  of  manhood  truth  courage  devotion  to  duty 
sympathy  for  and  protection  of  the  weak  kindliness  unselfishness 
and  fellowship  and 

(iv)  his  exhibition  during  school  days  of  moral  force  of  char- 
acter and  of  instincts  to  lead  and  to  take  an  interest  in  his  school- 
mates for  those  latter  attributes  will  be  likely  in  after  life  to  guide 
him  to  esteem  the  performance  of  public  duty  his  highest  aim. 

As  mere  suggestions  for  the  guidance  of  those  who  will  have 
the  choice  of  students  for  the  Scholarships  I  record  that  (i)  my 
ideal  qualified  student  would  combine  these  four  qualifications 
in  the  proportions  of  3/10  for  the  first  2/10  for  the  second  3/10 
for  the  third  and  2/10  for  the  fourth  qualification.     .     .     . 

No  student  shall  be  qualified  or  disqualified  for  election  to  a 
Scholarship  on  account  of  his  race  or  religious  opinions. 

In  this  simple  language  inspired  by  the  bold  energy 
of  the  pioneer,  Cecil  John  Rhodes,  diamond  miner  of 
New  Rush,  founder  of  Rhodesia,  and  worker  for  world 
peace,  established  the  international  scholarships  which 
bear  his  name. 


CHAPTER  X 

HISTORY  OF  THE  OPERATION  OF  THE  RHODES 
SCHOLARSHIPS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

By  Frank  x^ydelotte,  B.Litt.,  Indiana  and 

Brasenose,  '05 

President  of  Swarthmore  College  and  American 

Secretary  to  the  Rhodes  Trustees 

I.     ADMINISTRATION 

Cecil  John  Rhodes  died  on  March  26,  1902,  and  the 
first  American  Scholars  to  go  to  Oxford  under  his  mag- 
nificent bequest  entered  in  October,  1904:  so  speedily 
were  solved  the  difficult  problems  of  putting  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Will  into  operation,  of  building  up  the 
machinery  of  Committees  of  Selection,  administering  the 
qualifving  examination,  and  choosing  the  first  group  of 
Scholars.  Rhodes  designated  as  Trustees  under  his  will 
Lord  Rosebery,  Lord  Grey,  Lord  Milner,  Sir  Starr 
Jameson,  Sir  Lewis  Michell,  Bourchier  F.  Hawksley,  and 
Alfred  Beit.  These  Trustees  called  Dr.  (now  Sir  George) 
Parkin,  then  Head  of  Upper  Canada  College,  Toronto, 
Canada,  to  take  charge  of  the  organization  of  the 
Scholarships  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  appointed 
Francis  J.  Wylie,  at  that  time  Fellow  of  Brasenose  Col- 
lege, to  act  as  Oxford  Secretary  to  the  Trust. 

The  first  problem  in  the  organization  of  the  Scholar- 
ships was  to  arrange  with  the  Colleges  at  Oxford  the 


212  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

terms  on  which  they  would  be  wilHng  to  receive  Rhodes 
Scholars.  The  intimacy  of  the  life  in  an  Oxford  college, 
the  care  with  which  the  college  authorities  investigate 
the  personal  antecedents  and  intellectual  ability  of  the 
men  whom  they  accept,  and  the  peculiar  requirements  of 
the  University  made  these  problems  complicated.  Rhodes 
had  wished  that  his  Scholars  should  be  distributed 
throughout  all  the  Colleges  of  the  University  rather  than 
congregated  in  one  or  two.  Arrangements  were  accord- 
ingly made  with  the  larger  Colleges  to  receive  four  or 
five  Rhodes  Scholars  each  year,  and  with  the  others  to 
take  a  number  in  proportion  to  their  size.  Since  most 
Colleges  insist,  or  at  least  prefer,  that  applicants  for 
admission  should  have  passed  Responsions  before  coming 
to  Oxford,  this  examination  was  required  as  a  qualifica- 
tion for  all  candidates  for  the  Rhodes  Scholarships. 

After  these  arrangements  in  Oxford  were  completed, 
Dr.  Parkin  visited  all  the  countries  in  the  world  from 
which  Rhodes  Scholars  were  to  be  selected.  He  held  in 
1903  a  series  of  conferences  with  the  heads  of  American 
universities  in  various  parts  of  the  country:  he  met  the 
Association  of  American  Universities  in  New  York, 
the  Association  of  State  Universities  in  Washington,  the 
Association  of  Schools  and  Colleges  of  New  England  in 
Boston,  and  held  regional  conferences  in  Chicago,  Atlanta, 
Kansas  City,  Spokane,  Denver,  and  San  Francisco.  In 
these  conferences  the  whole  idea  of  the  Scholarships  and 
the  plans  for  administering  them  were  discussed  in  detail. 
Rhodes  had  evidently  intended  the  Scholarships  for 
graduates  of  secondary  schools  who  should  get  at  Oxford 
their  only  university  training,  but  it  was  the  opinion  of 
the  majority  that  American  boys  would  profit  more 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     213 

largely  from  the  Scholarships  and  better  fulfill  the  wish 
of  the  Founder  that  they  should  remain  primarily  Ameri- 
can citizens,  if  they  had  first  completed  a  part,  or  the 
whole,  of  an  American  university  course  before  going  to 
Oxford — a  decision  the  wisdom  of  which  has  been  amply 
borne  out  by  experience.  It  was  accordingly  fixed  by 
the  Trustees  as  one  of  the  requirements  that  American 
students  must  have  finished  at  least  their  sophomore  year 
in  some  recognized  American  degree-granting  university 
or  college.  A  Committee  of  Selection  was  appointed  by 
Dr.  Parkin  for  each  state  in  the  Union,  consisting  usually 
of  the  leading  college  and  university  presidents  of  the 
state,  to  whom  were  added  in  some  cases  public  men  of 
recognized  position  and  impartiality.  In  most  states  the 
plan  of  inter-university  competition  was  decided  upon. 
In  a  few  states,  where  there  was  only  one  institution  of 
higher  education,  the  nomination  of  Scholars  was  left  to 
that  institution.  In  California,  Maine,  Vermont,  and 
Washington,  systems  of  rotation  between  the  institu- 
tions were  arranged. 

The  qualifying  examination,  equivalent  to  Respon- 
sions  (for  which  236  candidates  offered  themselves  in  the 
various  states,  of  whom  120  passed),  was  first  held  in 
April,  1904,  and  the  first  group  of  Rhodes  Scholars  was 
elected  in  May  and  June.  Five  states  (Arizona,  Florida, 
Mississippi,  Nevada,  and  New  Mexico)  did  not  send 
Scholars  that  year.  In  1905  there  were  ten  states  (Ala- 
bama, Arkansas,  Arizona,  Mississippi,  Montana,  Nevada, 
North  Dakota,  Oregon,  South  Dakota,  and  Wyoming) 
in  which  no  candidates  appeared.  In  1906  there  was  no 
election,  the  arrangement  being  that  all  states  should 
elect  Scholars  two  years  out  of  three.  This  arrangement 


214  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

was  kept  up  until  1916,  Scholars  being  elected  in  1904, 
1905,  1907,  1908,  1910,  1911,  1913,  and  1914.  In  1914, 
however,  a  new  plan  was  decided  upon,  to  go  into  effect 
two  years  later,  by  which  the  states  were  divided  into 
three  groups  of  sixteen  each,  two  groups  to  elect  each 
year.  Consequently,  since  1916  the  United  States  has 
been  entitled  to  elect  thirty-two  Scholars  annually,  each 
state  choosing  one  Scholar  every  two  years  out  of  three, 
as  before.  With  the  inauguration  of  this  new  schedule, 
plans  were  made  for  holding  the  qualifying  examination 
in  every  state  every  year  in  order  that  candidates  might 
take  it  as  soon  as  they  were  prepared.  When  the  United 
States  entered  the  war  in  191 7,  elections  to  the  Rhodes 
Scholarships  were  postponed,  to  be  resumed  again  in  the 
autumn  of  1919. 

The  scheme  outlined  above  was  undoubtedly  the  wisest 
and  most  secure  method  of  administering  the  Scholarships 
in  the  United  States  during  the  early  years.  As  time 
went  on,  however,  the  advisability  of  certain  changes  in 
the  system  became  apparent  to  Dr.  Parkin  and  the 
Trustees.  In  a  few  states  ex-Rhodes  Scholars  had  been 
appointed  members  of  Committees  of  Selection,  but  for 
the  niost  part  no  use  whatever  was  made  of  the  experi- 
ence and  loyalty  of  these  men  in  selecting  the  Scholars 
who  should  go  to  Oxford.  In  the  second  place,  the 
Scholarships  suffered  throughout  the  first  fifteen  years 
of  their  history  from  the  lack  of  any  central  bureau  in  the 
United  States  where  information  could  be  obtained  about 
Oxford  and  the  regulations  governing  the  appointments. 
Some  of  the  college  presidents  who  were  members  of 
Committees  of  Selection  were  familiar  with  Oxford  and 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     215 

understood  the  Oxford  system,  but  most  of  them  had  no 
knowledge  except  what  they  could  get  from  official  cir- 
culars. In  either  case  they  were  busy  men  who  could 
not  be  expected  to  devote  much  time  to  giving  publicity 
to  the  Scholarships  or  to  advising  individual  candidates. 
There  were  in  addition  a  certain  number  of  complaints 
due  to  bitter  institutional  rivalries  in  various  states. 
Where  institutions  showed  a  tendency  to  expect  their 
"representative"  on  the  Committee  of  Selection  to  fight 
to  obtain  the  Scholarship,  the  result  was  sometimes 
bad;  in  other  instances  where  "institutional  courtesy" 
was  used  in  making  the  appointments,  the  effect  was 
even  worse,  in  that  it  produced  a  tendency  to  rotate 
the  appointments  without  due  regard  to  the  merits  of 
individual  candidates.  The  qualifying  examination, 
furthermore,  first  instituted  as  a  safeguard  to  the  Colleges 
in  Oxford,  proved  in  practice  to  have  very  little  value 
for  this  purpose  while  it  unquestionably  barred  out  a  great 
many  otherwise  excellent  candidates  who  had  not  taken 
courses  in  the  Classics,  and  who  were  unwilling  to  work 
up  the  minimum  of  Latin  and  Greek  required.  And  this 
requirement  of  Responsions  as  a  qualifying  examination 
tended  through  all  the  early  years  of  the  Scholarships  to 
cause  them  to  be  thought  of  as  intended  primarily  for 
Classical  students,  which  was  certainly  not  the  intention 
of  Rhodes  or  the  wish  of  the  Trustees. 

With  the  resumption  of  the  Scholarships  after  the  war, 
an  attempt  has  been  made  to  remedy  the  defects  indi- 
cated in  the  preceding  paragraph.  The  task  of  making 
the  selections  was  entrusted  by  Dr.  Parkin  to  the  group 
of  ex-Rhodes  Scholars  now  living  in  this  country.  Com- 
mittees being  entirely  made  up  of  these  men,  except  for 


2i6  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

che  chairmen,  who  have  in  most  cases  remained  the  same 
as  those  before  the  war.  The  general  responsibility  for 
giving  notice  of  elections,  advising  candidates  and 
answering  their  questions,  receiving  applications,  follow- 
ing up  references,  and  directing  the  work  of  Committees 
has  been  given  to  the  Secretaries  of  the  Committees  of 
Selection,  who  are  in  nearly  all  states  ex-Rhodes  Schol- 
ars. A  list  of  names  and  addresses  of  these  State  Secre- 
taries is  included  each  year  in  the  Memorandum  of 
Regulations  issued  by  the  Trustees;  the  current  list  for 
1922  will  be  found  in  Appendix  J  in  this  volume.  The 
oversight  of  these  Committees  and  the  general  responsi- 
bility for  the  interests  of  the  Scholarships  in  the  United 
States  have  been  entrusted  to  an  American  Secretary. 
The  qualifying  examination  has,  with  the  consent  of  the 
Oxford  Colleges,  been  abandoned  and  Rhodes  Scholars 
are  usually  excused  from  all  entrance  and  matriculation 
examinations  at  Oxford. 

The  first  effect  of  the  new  method  of  administration 
has  been  a  large  increase  in  the  number  of  candidates 
(425  in  1919,  400  in  1920,  and  over  500  in  1921)  and  a 
consequent  improvement  in  the  quality  of  the  men 
selected.  In  the  early  years  of  the  Scholarships,  appoint- 
ments, as  has  been  indicated,  frequently  went  begging. 
Now  the  situation  is  reversed;  since  the  resumption  of 
elections  after  the  war,  candidates  have  offered  them- 
selves each  year  in  all  states,  but  the  new  Committees 
have  adopted  a  policy  of  refusing  to  appoint  in  cases 
where,  no  matter  how  numerous  the  candidates,  no 
one  of  them,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Committee,  comes 
up  to  the  standard  which  should  be  required  for  so 
valuable   a   Scholarship.     Vacancies    thus    created    are 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     217 

thrown  open  to  strong  candidates  in  other  states  for 
whom  no  appointments  were  available,  a  proceeding 
which  tends  to  some  extent  to  make  up  for  the  inequal- 
ities in  population  between  the  various  states. 

II.    THE  RECORD  OF  THE  AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARS 

So  much  for  the  machinery  by  which  American  Rhodes 
Scholars  have  been  selected.  The  next  question  is,  what 
has  been  the  character  of  the  men  chosen?  There  has 
now  been  sufficient  time  and  experience  to  make  possible 
at  least  a  preliminary  judgment.  There  are  nearly  350 
ex- Rhodes  Scholars  living  in  the  United  States,  the  oldest 
of  whom  are  reaching  the  age  of  forty.  Throughout  the 
whole  history  of  the  Scholarships  a  great  deal  has  been 
said  and  written  about  these  men,  including  a  great  deal 
of  unmerited  praise  and  more  unmerited  blame.  The 
Rhodes  Scholars  have  been  chosen  from  so  many  dif- 
ferent states,  they  live  at  Oxford  in  so  many  different 
colleges,  and  they  scatter  after  their  return  to  so  many 
different  localities  that  it  is  practically  impossible  for 
any  one  man  to  know  them  as  a  group  before  they  go  to 
Oxford,  at  Oxford,  and  after  their  return.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  only  possible  way  of  getting  a  compre- 
hensive and  accurate  opinion  of  the  group  is  by  the  use 
of  statistics.  Professor  R.  W.  Burgess  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity was  accordingly  induced  to  undertake  a  statistical 
study  of  the  record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars,  which  was 
published  in  full  in  the  American  Oxonian  for  January, 
1921.  The  results  of  Professor  Burgess'  study  show 
that  the  record  of  this  group  of  men  is  extremely  credita- 
ble, although  all  friends  of  the  Scholarships  hope  that 
the  next  fifteen  years  will  see  it  still  further  improved. 


2i8  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Something  over  500  Rhodes  Scholars  have  been 
appointed  from  the  beginning  down  to  the  present,^  of 
whom  nearly  350  are  now  living  in  the  United  States, 
about  130  are  at  Oxford,  and  19  are  living  in  other  coun- 
tries. The  Rhodes  Scholars  represent  172  American 
colleges  and  universities;  39  institutions  have  sent  as 
many  as  five  or  more,  while  seven  have  been  represented 
by  ten  or  more  Rhodes  Scholars.  Of  this  last  group  Har- 
vard and  Princeton  lead  with  18  each,  Yale  has  13, 
Brown,  11,  and  the  Universities  of  Idaho  and  Virginia, 
ten  each.  The  average  age  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  at 
the  time  they  enter  Oxford  is  22  years  and  four  months ; 
the  youngest  are  19,  the  oldest  nearly  25.  Prior  to  their 
selection  most  of  them  had  taken  at  least  the  A.B. 
degree  in  an  American  university;  only  14  per  cent  had 
had  less  than  a  full  college  course  in  America;  while 
19  per  cent  had  had  one  or  more  years  of  graduate  or 
professional  study.  Eighty  per  cent  of  those  sent  from 
institutions  where  there  is  a  chapter  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
are  members  of  that  society.  Forty  per  cent  represented 
their  American  colleges  or  universities  in  one  or  more 
branches  of  athletics. 

The  second  part  of  Professor  Burgess'  study  is  con- 
cerned with  the  record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  at  Oxford. 
The  courses  taken  by  the  whole  group  matriculated  from 
1904-14  are  best  shown  by  the  following  table: 

'  The  figures  given  here  and  in  subsequent  paragraphs  were  accurate 
in  the  spring  of  192 1.  The  numbers  and  averages  change  of  course  each 
year. 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     219 

Per  Cent 
Number    of  Total 

Law 115  32.7 

Modern  History'  and  Economics 60  17.1 

Humanities,    including    the    Classics,    Philos- 
ophy (6),  and  Anthropology'  (4) 59  16.8 

English  Language  and  Literature      26  7.4 

Theology 25  7.1 

Mathematics,  Physics,  Chemistry'  and  Engi- 
neering      21  6.0 

French,  German  and  Spanish 13  3.7 

Physiologj-  and  Medical  Subjects      10  2.9 

Geology  and  Forestr>'      6  1.7 

Music 3  .9 

Record  incomplete' 13  3.7 

About  four-fifths  of  the  men  have  taken  the  B.A. 
degree  at  Oxford  in  one  of  the  so-called  Honour  Schools; 
one-fifth  have  taken  research  degrees.  The  men  taking 
research  degrees  are  possibly  stronger,  or  at  least  better 
prepared,  than  those  taking  the  Honour  Schools.  The 
research  men  include  more  than  their  proportionate 
number  of  members  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  more  of  the 
men  from  the  large  universities  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 
But  the  men  taking  the  Honour  Schools  are  the  only 
ones  whose  record  it  is  possible  to  compare  with  the 
record  of  other  students  at  the  University,  for  it  is  only 
the  Honours  B.A.  men  who  get  their  degrees  with 
classes  indicating  grades — First,  Second,  Third,  or  Fourth, 
as  the  case  may  be. 

The  follovv'ing  table  gives  in  summary  form  the  record 

'This  item  includes  four  men  who  died  and  three  who  resigned  early 
in  their  Oxford  course. 


220  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

of  this  group  of  four-fifths  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  who 
have  taken  the  Honours  B.A.  at  Oxford  as  compared 
with  the  whole  group  of  Oxford  Honours  men,  and  with 
the  other  Oxford  Scholarship  men  alone: 

Other 
All  Honours     Rhodes     Scholarship 
Men  Scholars    Men  Alone 

Firsts      13%  15%  33% 

Seconds      36%  49%  44% 

First  and  Seconds  Combined  .  50%  64%  77% 

Thirds 37%  29%  19% 

Fourths 14%  7%  3% 


While  the  record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  is  distinctly 
better  than  the  record  of  the  entire  group  of  Honours 
men,  it  is  not  as  good  as  the  record  of  the  other  Scholar- 
ship men;  that  is,  of  the  English  public-school  men  who 
win  Scholarships  in  the  Oxford  Colleges  by  open  competi- 
tive examinations.  If  the  other  Scholarship  men  and 
Exhibitioners  are  taken  together,  their  percentage  of 
Firsts  and  Seconds  combined  is  only  66,  as  against 
64  for  the  Rhodes  Scholars. 

The  record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  is  not  uniform  in 
the  different  schools.  In  Mathematics,  Chemistry,  and 
Physics  only  four  per  cent  of  the  men  have  taken  Firsts, 
In  Law,  Physiology,  and  Geology,  on  the  other  hand,  27 
per  cent  have  taken  Firsts.  The  Englishmen  do  better 
in  those  subjects  which  depend  upon  previous  preparation 
in  the  "public"  schools;  the  Rhodes  Scholars  do  better  in 
subjects  which  do  not  depend  on  preparatory  school 
work. 

American  Rhodes  Scholars  have  secured  a  total  of 
23  university  and  college  prizes.    Men  who  were  members 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     221 

of  Phi  Beta  Kappa  have  a  slightly  higher  record  than 
those  men  who  were  not,  and  the  Rhodes  Scholars  who 
were  unusually  young  or  unusually  old  at  the  time  they 
went  to  Oxford  have  a  higher  record  than  the  men  of 
average  age.  Rhodes  Scholars  from  the  larger  states 
make  a  better  record  at  Oxford  than  those  from  smaller 
states.  The  men  from  the  Middle  Atlantic  States  have 
the  best  all-round  record,  those  from  the  South  Central 
States  the  second  best,  while  those  from  the  West  and 
North  Central  States  stand  lowest. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  in  making  these  com- 
parisons, that  the  Rhodes  Scholars  have  had  more  aca- 
demic experience  than  the  Englishmen  with  whom  they 
are  being  compared;  their  record  ought  perhaps  to  be 
better  than  it  is  on  that  account.  Over  against  this 
advantage  is  the  very  real  difficulty  of  mastering  a 
totally  different  system  of  instruction  and  examination. 

Unquestionably  Rhodes  Scholars  should  be  compared 
with  the  English  holders  of  open  Scholarships  rather  than 
with  the  whole  group  of  Honours  men ;  that  is,  with  the 
best  single  group  in  the  University.  One  group  of 
Rhodes  Scholars — the  nearly  one-third  who  have  read 
Law  at  Oxford — do  not  come  off  badly  in  this  comparison, 
and  it  seems  easily  possible  that  the  United  States  will 
in  the  not  far  distant  future  produce  a  set  of  Rhodes 
Scholars  who,  taking  Firsts  and  Seconds  together,  will 
equal  the  record  of  the  English  Scholarship  men. 

The  really  important  test  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  is 
their  careers  in  the  United  States  after  their  return.  It  is 
of  course  extremely  difficult  to  make  statistical  tables 
which  will  give  any  accurate  indication  of  their  success. 


222  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

A  few  facts,  however,  seem  to  be  significant.  In  the  first 
place  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  all  the  men  have  re- 
turned ;  of  over  500  American  Rhodes  Scholars  appointed 
so  far,  only  one  has  become  a  British  subject.  In  several 
cases  American  Rhodes  Scholars  have  been  offered  attract- 
ive positions  at  Oxford,  but  they  have  felt  that  their  work 
lay  at  home.  Those  who  are  in  missionary  work  or  who 
represent  American  business  houses  in  foreign  countries 
are  only  an  apparent  exception.  Thus  has  experience 
proved  groundless  the  fears,  so  often  expressed  at  the 
time  when  the  Rhodes  Scholarships  were  first  announced, 
that  the  Oxford  life  would  make  Englishmen  out  of  the 
Scholars,  On  the  contrary  the  evidence  shows  conclu- 
sively that  they  come  back  better  Americans  for  their 
experience  at  Oxford. 

Another  significant  fact  is  the  tendency  of  returned 
American  Scholars  to  congregate  in  the  large  cities  where 
professional  competition  is  most  severe.  That  is,  to  a 
certain  extent,  an  indication  of  success.  About  350  ex- 
Rhodes  Scholars  are  living  in  the  United  States,  and  if 
they  returned  to  the  states  from  which  they  were  ap- 
pointed, there  would  be  about  seven  in  each  state. 
Instead  there  are  46  in  New  York,  2^]  in  Massachusetts, 
17  in  Illinois,  13  in  California,  and  ten  each  in  Maryland, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Texas.  Three  states 
have  only  one  ex-Rhodes  Scholar  each,  seven  more  have 
only  two,  and  nine  have  only  three. 

About  half  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  take  further  gradu- 
ate or  professional  study  after  their  return,  most  of  them 
studying  Law  or  Medicine  or  working  for  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.  About  one-third  of  the  men  have  published  books 
or  scientific  papers,  these  being  in  most  cases  the  men 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     223 

who  have  gone  into  academic  work.  The  occupations  of 
the  303  men  of  the  years  1904-14  for  whom  records  are 
available,  are  shown  in  the  following  table: 

Education      114 

Dixided : 

College  presidents,  deans,  etc.    .\ 7 

Other  college  teachers 84 

Educational  administration 7 

Secondary  school      ii 

Full  time,  Law,  Theology,  Medicine 5 

Law 72 

Business 38 

Social  and  religious  work  (including  12  ministers)      ...  23 

Government  service 15 

Graduate  or  professional  students 10 

Scientific  work      10 

Literary  and  editorial      8 

Medical  work 7 

Miscellaneous 6 

303 

The  largest  single  group  is  in  education,'  and  here  the 
positions  which  they  occupy  are  some  indication  of  their 
success.  There  are  about  100  of  them  altogether  scat- 
tered among  75  colleges  and  universities  throughout  the 
country.  The  average  age  of  these  100  men  is  33  years. 
They  have  all  of  them  had  a  late  start,  and  it  is  dis- 
tinctly creditable  that  one-third  are  already  full  pro- 
fessors, one-third  assistant  or  associate  professors,  and 
only  one-third  instructors. 

The  next  group  is  made  up  of  the  24  per  cent  of  the 
men  who  are  practising  law;  this  group  is  one  of  the  most 


224  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

successful.  It  is  very  interesting  to  note  that  of  all  the 
men  who  have  gone  into  the  practice  of  law,  more  than 
half  have  done  so  without  taking  any  work  in  an  Ameri- 
can law  school  either  before  they  went  to  Oxford  or  after 
their  return.  They  are  practising  law  successfully  in 
this  country  on  the  basis  of  their  Oxford  legal  education. 
Another  ten  per  cent  of  the  men  have  gone  into  business, 
and  in  some  ways  they  are  perhaps  the  most  remarkably 
successful  group  of  all.  The  remainder  have  gone  into 
social  and  religious  work,  or  into  miscellaneous  occupa- 
tions. 

Statistics,  however,  tell  only  imperfectly  the  story  of 
the  work  and  personality  of  any  group  of  men.  The 
inadequacy  of  this  statistical  study  as  a  representation  of 
the  whole  value  of  the  Rhodes  Scholarships  is  shown 
strikingly  in  the  case  of  two  Rhodes  Scholars  who  have 
recently  died.  One  of  these  was  a  professor  of  English  in 
the  University  of  Washington.  He  was  not  a  man  whose 
record  at  Oxford  could  be  represented  in  statistical  form. 
He  was  a  candidate  for  a  research  degree,  but,  through 
the  unfortunate  loss  of  his  notes  and  papers  at  the  last 
moment,  was  unable  to  finish  his  dissertation  and  was 
compelled  to  leave  without  taking  a  degree.  Neverthe- 
less his  work  and  his  writings  show  how  much  Oxford 
meant  to  him,  and  how  much  of  that  meaning  he  was 
able  to  translate  into  terms  of  service  to  an  American 
institution.  He  was  a  believer  in  the  qualitative  as 
opposed  to  quantitative  theory  of  culture,  and  he  put 
that  belief  into  operation  not  by  trying  to  get  university 
statutes  modified,  but  by  applying  it  in  his  own  work.  He 
gave  his  students  in  English  Literature  a  great  many 
personal  conferences.     He  influenced  their  reading,  and 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     225 

directed  their  work  so  that  they  became  students  of  a 
subject  rather  than  merely  followers  of  detailed  courses. 
He  thought  for  himself  and  encouraged  original  thought 
in  his  students,  which  is  the  greatest  work  that  a  teacher 
can  do.  The  result  was  that  when  he  died  there  was  a 
chorus  of  grief  and  admiration  for  his  work  from  his 
students  and  his  colleagues  which  bore  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  unique  place  which  he  held  in  his  institution. 
Another  Rliodes  Scholar  decided  that  his  best  course 
at  Oxford  was  to  take  Honour  Moderations,  the  work  for 
which  required  two  years  of  his  Scholarship,  thus  making 
it  impossible  for  him  to  take  the  Honour  School  of 
Literae  Humaniores,  which  would  have  required  two 
years  more.  He  therefore  left  Oxford  without  taking  a 
degree.  On  his  return  to  this  country  he  became  a 
teacher  in  one  of  our  most  important  secondary  schools. 
As  the  war  went  on  he  became  more  and  more  convinced 
that  he  himself  owed  some  kind  of  personal  service  to  the 
cause  of  the  Allies.  The  result  was  that  in  1916  he  re- 
signed his  position,  went  to  England,  enlisted  in  the 
English  Army,  and  was  given  a  commission  as  Second 
Lieutenant  in  the  Grenadier  Guards.  He  was  killed 
May  18,  1918,  near  Arras,  by  a  German  bomb.  No 
Rhodes  Scholar  who  has  ever  gone  to  Oxford  has  done 
more  truly  the  work  which  the  Founder  intended — of 
cultivating  good  relations  between  America  and  England. 
His  record  at  Oxford  is  one  which  the  coarse  thumb  and 
finger  of  statistics  cannot  measure.  But  his  character — 
his  enthusiasm,  his  modesty,  his  capacity  for  friendship — 
make  his  career  a  tie  of  flesh  and  blood  and  affection  be- 
tween all  those  of  both  countries  whose  good  fortune  it 
was  to  know  him. 


226  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

These  are  only  two  instances  of  many  which  show  how 
inadequate  statistics  are  to  represent  human  truth  in 
its  entirety.  It  is  impossible  to  say  from  any  such  study 
what  the  effect  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  has  been  so  far  on 
public  opinion  in  this  country.  America  has  lately  fin- 
ished the  adventure  of  sending,  not  five  hundred  men, 
but  several  millions  to  Europe  to  engage  not  in  education 
but  in  warfare  for  the  purpose  of  settling  certain  impor- 
tant European  questions.  Along  with  our  soldiers  went 
a  large  group  of  mature,  influential  men — experts,  sci- 
entists, historians,  economists,  and  so  on — to  study  the 
problems  of  war  and  the  problems  of  peace.  Have  those 
men,  since  their  return — and  they  have  almost  to  a  man 
come  back  with  a  very  strong  interest  in  European  prob- 
lems— succeeded  in  giving  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States  any  strong  and  abiding  interest  in  Europe?  Any- 
body who  looks  at  the  country  at  the  present  time  will  at 
least  have  some  doubt  in  his  mind  about  the  answer;  and 
so  must  there  be  some  doubt  about  the  influence  of  this 
very  small  group  of  Rhodes  Scholars,  especially  in  times 
such  as  we  have  just  been  passing  through. 

Perhaps  their  greatest  influence  so  far  has  been  in 
education,  and  perhaps  there  is  no  career  in  the  United 
States  at  the  present  time  which  represents  more  accu- 
rately what  Rhodes  thought  of  as  public  life,  no  career 
which  offers  a  better  opportunity  to  influence  public 
opinion  than  that  of  professor  or  administrative  oflicer  in 
one  of  our  American  colleges  or  universities. 


APPENDIX  A 

LIBRARIES,  MUSEUMS,  AND  OTHER 
UNIVERSITY  INSTITUTIONS 

By  C.  C.  Brinton,  A.B., 

Massachusetts  and  New  College,  'ig 
THE  BODLEIAN  LIBRARY 

The  Bodleian  Library  was  founded  in  1602  by  Sir 
Thomas  Bodley.  Originally  housed  in  a  room  over  the 
Divinity  School,  it  has  grown  to  occupy  all  the  buildings 
of  the  Old  Examination  Schools  quadrangle,  the  Rad- 
cliffe  Camera,  and  several  underground  store  rooms. 

Something  of  the  atmosphere  of  thoughtful  seclusion 
which  is  the  peculiar  charm  of  the  Bodleian  may  be  felt 
in  the  picturesque  Gothic  quadrangle  of  the  Old  Schools. 
But  the  heart  of  the  Library  is  the  old  Reading  Room, 
the  beautiful  fifteenth-century  room  of  the  first  founda- 
tion with  its  timber  roof,  its  portraits  and  its  stained  glass 
windows.  Here  is  a  place  where  books  seem  at  home,  and 
study  as  much  a  part  of  things  as  the  walls  themselves. 
The  monastic  intensity  and  devotion  to  learning  which 
raised  the  Library  seems  built  into  its  stones.  There  is  a 
quality  and  atmosphere  about  the  Bodleian  not  to  be 
found  in  the  great  modern  libraries  of  the  world. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  thought  that  the  Bodleian  is  merely 
a  mediaeval  library.  Like  most  European  libraries  its 
choicest  treasures  are  its  manuscripts  and  rare  editions, 


228  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

consulted  by  scholars  of  the  world.  But  it  is  also  a  great 
general  library.  It  is  in  fact  the  largest  university  library 
in  the  world;  the  second  largest  library  in  the  British 
Empire  (being  surpassed  in  size  only  by  the  British  Mu- 
seum) ;  and  about  the  eighth  in  size  among  the  libraries 
of  the  entire  world.  It  contains  over  1,000,000  bound 
volumes  (comprising  some  2,000,000  separate  titles),  and 
over  40,000  volumes  of  manuscripts.  By  a  grant  from  the 
Stationers'  Company,  dated  1610,  and  now  merged  in  the 
Copyright  Act,  the  Bodleian  enjoys  the  right  to  a  copy  of 
every  book  printed  and  copyrighted  in  the  United 
Kingdom.  Under  this  grant  it  acquired  before  the  war 
some  40,000  volumes  annually.  Its  accession  from  all 
sources  averaged  60,000  volumes  a  year. 

The  Old  Examination  Schools,  now  forming  the  main 
building  of  the  Bodleian,  were  begun  late  in  the  fifteenth 
century  and  finished  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  Their 
most  conspicuous  feature,  and  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able bits  of  architecture  in  Oxford,  is  the  inner  facade  of 
the  eastern  tower  of  the  quadrangle,  on  which  from  base 
to  pinnacle  are  represented  five  orders  of  classical  archi- 
tecture. In  this  building  are  kept  all  the  manuscripts  and 
almost  all  books  of  the  collection  printed  before  1824. 

The  Radclifife  Camera,  adjacent  to  the  Old  Schools,  is 
a  unique  and  beautiful  circular  building,  surmounted  by 
a  dome,  erected  in  the  eighteenth  century  under  the  di- 
rection of  James  Gibbs,  a  pupil  of  Wren.  It  is  perhaps 
the  finest  building  of  Renaissance  inspiration  in  Oxford. 
The  Camera  contains  most  books  of  the  collection  printed 
since  1885,  and  a  general  reading  room  supplied  with 
15,000  selected  books,  leading  periodicals,  and  catalogues 
of  books  and  manuscripts. 


UNIVERSITY  INSTITUTIONS  229 

COLLEGE  LIBRARIES 

Every  College  or  Hall  has  a  library  of  its  own.  As  a 
rule  these  libraries  consist  of  two  parts: 

1.  The  Library  proper,  which  has  been  gradually 
accumulating  in  the  course  of  several  centuries  and  which 
often  contains  manuscripts  and  rare  editions  of  great 
value.  These  can  be  consulted  on  permission  granted  by 
the  Librarian  of  the  College. 

2.  The  Undergraduates'  Library,  which  consists  of 
modern  literature  and  standard  works  used  in  reading 
for  the  various  examinations.  These  books  may  com- 
monly be  borrowed,  often  even  for  the  duration  of  the 
vacations.  These  libraries  are  very  convenient  for  col- 
lege members  and  a  great  deal  of  work  which  is  not 
strictly  research  can  be  done  in  them.  The  reader  has  an 
opportunity  to  browse  among  the  books,  and  can  take 
those  he  wishes  to  study  back  to  the  quiet  of  his  room. 

Among  the  special  collections  of  interest  may  be 
mentioned;  the  library  at  Queen's  College,  containing 
in  addition  to  the  ordinary  collection  about  five  thousand 
volumes  in  the  Slavic  languages,  or  relating  to  Slavic 
culture;  the  library  at  Worcester,  rich  in  seventeenth 
century  manuscripts  on  history  and  literature;  and 
that  of  Christ  Church  which  has  a  valuable  collection  of 
books  on  music  and  on  early  Scandinavian  literature. 

SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 

In  addition  to  the  Bodleian  and  the  college  libraries, 
there  are  at  Oxford  numerous  special  collections  of  great 
importance.  The  convenience  of  these  smaller  libraries 
is  apparent.    They  permit  the  reader  in  a  definite  field 


230  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

to  have  free  access  to  the  books  he  most  needs ;  the  delay 
inevitable  in  a  large  library  is  saved;  and  the  reader 
can  often  borrow  supplementary  books  from  the  Bodleian 
for  use  in  these  libraries: 

Codrington  Library  (All  Souls  College)  is  especially 
rich  in  works  bearing  upon  modern  history  and  law. 
It  contains  a  Reading  Room  where  books  from  the 
General  Library  also  may  be  consulted. 

Maitland  Library,  founded  to  commemorate  the 
work  of  the  late  Dr.  F.  W.  Maitland,  Professor  of 
English  Law  at  Cambridge  University,  is  intended  to 
assist  advanced  work  and  research  in  social  and  legal 
history.  To  further  this  object,  it  has  been  connected 
with  the  Corpus  Professor's  Seminar,  and  provision  is 
especially  made  for  works  required  in  the  Seminar. 

Taylorian  Library,  devoted  to  modern  languages  and 
literature,  contains  about  fifty  thousand  volumes,  com- 
prising the  chief  philological,  literary,  and  historical 
works  of  the  principal  European  languages.  Its  reading 
rooms  are  open  to  all  members  of  the  University;  and 
under  certain  conditions  works  may  be  borrowed  for 
outside  use. 

The  Library  and  Museum  of  the  Indian  Institute.  The 
library  contains  over  twenty-three  thousand  volumes 
intended  to  represent  very  fully  the  languages  and  culture 
of  ancient,  mediaeval  and  modern  India.  It  is  particu- 
larly valuable  for  two  classes  of  students:  those  inter- 
ested in  the  history  or  present  condition  of  India;  and 
those  interested  in  Sanskrit  and  other  Oriental  Lan- 
guages. The  Museum  supplements  the  library  in  giving 
a  synopsis  of  Indian  life  and  customs. 

The   Radcliffe  Library,  located    near   the   University 


UNIVERSITY  INSTITUTIONS  231 

Museum,  was  founded  by  the  will  of  John  Radcliffe, 
M.D.,  in  1 7 14,  and  was  originally  housed  in  the  Rad- 
cliffe Camera.  It  now  consists  of  periodicals  and  books 
in  foreign  tongues  on  Mathematics,  Science  and  Medi- 
cine. The  Anthropological  library  of  the  late  Sir  Edward 
Tyler  has  recently  been  deposited  in  the  Radcliffe  Library. 
In  addition  to  the  foregoing  libraries,  the  following 
special  collections  of  books  are  available  for  the  use  of 
students: 

TJie  Beit  Library  of  Colonial  History 

The  Library  of  the  English  School 

The  Hope  Library  (Entomology) 

The  Botanical  Library,  Botanical  Gardens 

The  Geographical  Library  of  the  School  of  Geography.  The 
library'  contains  over  five  thousand  volumes  and  thirteen  thou- 
sand sheets  of  maps. 

The  Library  of  Art  and  Archaeology  (Ashmolean  Museum) 

Barnett  House  Library  (Economics  and  Politics) 

THE  ASHMOLEAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART  AND  ARCHAEOLOGY 

This,  the  earliest  English  museum,  had  its  origin  in  a 
collection  of  rarities  and  botanical  specimens  formed  at 
South  Lambeth  by  John  Tradescant  (d.  1638)  and  known 
in  its  day  as  Tradescant's  Ark.  It  was  given  to  the 
LTniversity  by  Elias  Ashmole  in  1679,  and  the  Ashmolean 
Building  erected  to  contain  it.  It  has  steadily  developed 
by  bequests  and  by  the  transfer  of  various  antiquities 
from  other  departments  of  the  University.  The  scien- 
tific collections  have  been  placed  in  the  University 
Museum,  and  the  other  collections  transferred  to  a  new 
Ashmolean  Building  in  connection  with  the  University 
Galleries;   so  that  now  the  art  collections  of  the  Univer- 


232  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

sity,  vying  in  importance  with  those  of  many  famous 
Continental  museums,  are  all  under  one  roof.  The 
museum  is  divided  into  three  departments:  the  Anti- 
quarium,  the  Fine  Arts  Galleries,  and  Classical  Archae- 
ology. 

For  the  purposes  of  the  art  student  the  Ashmolean 
is  very  complete.  The  Ruskin  Drawing  School  which 
occupies  a  room  on  the  ground  floor,  affords  practical 
instruction.  Its  students  have  free  access  to  the  collec- 
tions of  the  museum  for  purposes  of  study,  copying  or 
sketching.  The  Ashmolean  has  a  still  wider  appeal  to 
those  who  wish  to  study  art  as  a  means  of  aesthetic  en- 
joyment. It  has  a  very  complete  and  representative 
collection,  ranging  from  the  earliest  prehistoric  art 
down  to  modern  art.  Everything  that  is  important 
in  art  cannot,  of  course,  be  represented  in  any  one 
museum;  and  the  supremely  great  things  must  be  sought 
in  London  and  on  the  Continent.  But  the  Ashmolean 
can  afford  an  excellent  course  of  instruction  for  the 
beginner  in  the  appreciation  of  art,  and  the  initiated 
will  not  fail  to  find  much  that  is  very  worth  his  while. 
Among  the  treasures  of  the  museum  are:  the  original 
Tradescant  collection,  now  set  apart  as  a  museum  in 
museo;  the  Egyptian  antiquities;  the  Greek  vases;  the 
unique  collection  illustrating  the  civilisation  of  the  Aegean 
Age  brought  back  from  Knossos  in  Crete  by  Sir  Arthur 
Evans;  King  Alfred's  jewel;  the  Westwood  collection 
of  fictile  ivories,  one  of  the  most  complete  in  existence; 
a  remarkable  series  of  original  drawings  by  Michael 
Angelo  and  Raphael;  etchings  by  Rembrandt,  Van 
Dyck  and  others ;  a  number  of  Turner's  works;  a  splen- 
did collection  of  oaintings  of  the  Pre-Raphaelite  school; 


UNIVERSITY  INSTITUTIONS  233 

a  collection  of  primitive  Italian  paintings;  other  Italian 
and  Flemish  paintings;  some  marbles  and  terra  cottas 
of  the  Florentine  school;  the  famous  Arundel  marbles, 
including  the  "Oxford  head"  of  Sappho;  two  beautiful 
candelabra  from  the  Villa  Hadrian  at  Tivoli. 

THE    UNIVERSITY  MUSEUM 

The  University  Museum  houses thescientificcollections 
of  the  University,  illustrating  all  the  fields  of  natural 
science — zoology',  geology,  paleontology,  petrology,  min- 
eralogy, entomology,  and  others.  The  Pitt  Rivers  Mu- 
seum, containing  a  large  and  very  important  anthropo- 
logical collection,  is  an  annex  of  the  University  Museum. 

THE    CLARENDON  PRESS 

The  Clarendon  Press,  or  University  Printing  Office, 
formerly  occupied  the  Clarendon  Building  situated  near 
the  Bodleian  library.  It  has  been  removed  to  modern 
quarters  on  Walton  Street.  The  Press  is  one  of  the  largest 
printing  establishments  in  the  world.  In  addition  to  the 
ordinary  printing  work  of  the  University,  it  is  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  printing  of  works  of  a  learned  or  educa- 
tional character.  It  is  exceptionally  well  equipped  for 
printing  works  of  scholarship,  and  works  in  foreign 
languages,  as  well  as  for  the  reproduction  of  manuscripts. 
The  Press  publishes  much  of  the  work  of  Oxford  fellows 
and  research  students. 

The  University  possesses  also  numerous  scientific 
laboratories,  a  Botanical  Garden,  and  a  large  park  which 
is  open  to  the  public. 


APPENDIX  B 
EXPENSES  AT  OXFORD 

By  F.  J.  Wylie,  M.A.,  Oxford  Secretary  to  the  Rhodes 
Trustees  {Some  time  Fellow  of  Brasenose  College) 

The  cost  of  an  Oxford  education  is  high:  not  higher, 
perhaps,  than  it  is  at  some  of  the  big  Eastern  universities 
in  the  United  States,  but  still  high.  This  is  due  to  vari- 
ous causes:  to  the  residential  collegiate  system,  to  the 
character  of  the  teaching  (which  is  largely  tutorial),  and 
to  traditional  standards  of  living.  Moreover,  the  con- 
ditions of  life  at  Oxford  make  it  difficult  for  a  man  to 
add  in  any  way  to  his  income,  and  wholly  impossible 
for  him  to  "earn  his  way  through",  as  he  might  in 
America. 

It  is  true  that  a  not  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the 
actual  cost  of  the  education  of  every  undergraduate  is 
borne  by  the  corporate  revenues  of  the  colleges  and  the 
University,  which  are  derived  from  endowments.  This 
contribution,  however,  still  leaves  us  with  a  remainder  of 
necessary  undergraduate  expenditure  quite  sufficient  to 
make  the  budgeting  of  a  Rhodes  Scholar  a  nice  and 
anxious  operation. 

Undergraduate  expenditure  varies,  obviously,  with  the 
individual;  and  even,  to  some  extent,  with  the  college — 
for,  in  the  first  place,  the  general  standard  of  living  in  any 
college  depends  upon  the  general  level  of  income  of  the 
undergraduates  at  the  college  (which  is  not  the  same  for 


EXPENSES  235 

all  colleges),  and  in  the  second  place  colleges  differ  in  the 
proportion  of  the  cost  of  each  undergraduate  which  they 
can  afiford  to  throw  upon  their  corporate  revenues 
derived  from  endowments.  It  is  these  variations  that 
make  general  statements  difficult. 

Official  estimates  are  apt  to  be  based  on  minimums, 
and  to  that  extent  are  misleading,  even  though  they  may 
have  figures  in  support.  And  in  any  case  a  Rhodes 
Scholar,  coming  as  he  does  from  overseas,  with  no  home 
at  his  disposal  for  vacations,  no  family  doctor  or  dentist, 
no  opportunity  of  "putting  down  to  the  family",  as  the 
English  boy  quite  frequently  can,  now  one  thing  now 
another,  must  be  prepared  with  a  margin  for  which 
official  estimates  make  little  allowance. 

Under  the  heading  of  Expenses  fall  payments  to  the 
University,  payments  to  the  college,  and,  of  course, 
personal  expenses. 

To  the  University  an  undergraduate  pays  on  matricu- 
lation an  entrance  fee  (£4.  o.  o.)  and  subsequently 
"terminal  dues"  amounting  to  £4.  10.  o.  annually.  In 
addition  he  pays  for  any  examinations  which  he  may 
take.  Ordinarily,  the  examination  fees,  from  first  to  last, 
come  to  about  £12.  o.  o.  A  Rhodes  Scholar,  who  gets 
Senior  or  Junior  Standing,  obtains  exemption  from  some 
of  the  earlier  examinations;  but  the  fee  which  he  pays 
for  admission  to  the  Standing  corresponds  roughly  to 
the  fees  which  he  would  have  paid  for  the  examinations 
from  which  he  obtains  exemption.  Financially,  there- 
fore, the  result  is  much  the  same  whatever  standing  he 
obtain.  Lastly,  on  taking  his  B.A.  degree,  an  under- 
graduate pays  to  the  University  a  fee  of  £7.  10.  o. 

It  is,  however,  to  the  college  that  the  bulk  of  an 


236 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


undergraduate's  payments  are  made.  Those  include, 
generally,  an  entrance  fee,  and  thereafter  terminal 
charges  for  room  rent,  tuition,  board,  service,  laundry, 
athletic  clubs,  coal,  lighting,  and  any  groceries  or  other 
supplies  which  may  be  bought  from  the  college  "Stores". 

The  terminal  bills  presented  by  the  college  are  known 
as  Battels,  and  in  most  cases  are  presented  for  payment 
at  the  beginning  of  the  term  succeeding  that  in  which 
the  debt  is  incurred.  I  have  before  me  a  number  of  such 
Battels  from  nine  different  colleges.  They  average  about 
£58.  10.  o:  and  I  think  that  an  average  man's  Battels,  at 
an  average  college,  to-day,  might  safely  be  put  at  a  figure 
approaching  £60. 

How  is  that  sum  made  up?  The  three  specimen  Battels 
which  follow — in  each  case  an  actual  Battel  bill  for 
Michaelmas  term  1920 — will  answer  that  question. 

SPECIMEN  BATTELS 


A 

B 

C 

University  Dues 

£  I.   10.  0. 

£    I.    10.    0. 

£   I.    10.    0. 

Colleges    Charges — including 

Room    Rent,    Service,    Rates 

and     Taxes,     Furniture     De- 

preciation, electric  light,  etc. 

20.     I.  0. 

19.   16.   10. 

15.  16.  II. 

Tuition 

10.     0.  0. 

9.     0.     0. 

9.     0.    0. 

Weekly  Battels: 

Buttery,  Kitchen,  Stores,  Coal, 

etc 

26.   12.  2. 

22.     6.  0. 

25.  17.  10. 

Laundress      

I.   18.  4. 

3.     6.   5- 

2.     3-     5- 

Bicycle  Shed 

12.  6. 

Gate  Fines  and  Damage  Fund  . 

9.  0. 

I.  6. 

Clubs      

2.   12.   2. 

2.      I.  0. 

2.     2.  0. 

63.   15-  2. 

58.      I.  9- 

56.   10.  2. 

If,    then,  we  reckon  terminal  Battels  as  about  £60 


EXPENSES  237 

a  term,  we  get  a  total  of  something  like  £180  for  the 
academic  year  of  three  terms.  Battels,  however,  make 
no  allowance  for  clothes,  books,  amusements,  doctors, 
charities,  or  for  any  of  the  hundred  and  one  small 
personal  expenses  which,  unimportant  if  taken  sep- 
arately, amount  in  the  aggregate  to  something  con- 
siderable. To  Battels,  therefore,  we  must  add,  say, 
£25  a  term,  which  brings  our  total  for  the  six  months  of 
the  academic  year  to  about  £255.  For  the  26  weeks  of 
vacation — to  cover  board,  lodging,  travelling,  and  inci- 
dental expenses — the  Rhodes  Scholar  will  spend  from 
£140  to  £150.  In  other  words,  from  first  to  last,  his 
year  will  cost  the  average  Rhodes  Scholar  from  £390 
to  £400.  This  figure  represents,  of  course,  a  rough  esti- 
mate. Some  men  may  not  reach  it:  many,  without 
extravagance,  will  exceed  it. 

In  these  calculations  I  have  assumed  that  the  under- 
graduate is  living  "in  college",  as  indeed  a  Rhodes  Scholar 
is  expected  to  do  for  two  years  out  of  the  three  for  which 
his  Scholarship  runs.  Before  the  war,  it  used  to  be 
maintained,  not  without  justification,  that  a  man  could 
live  more  economically  in  lodgings  than  in  college. 
Probably  it  still  holds  that,  by  going  far  afield,  he  can 
find  lodgings  in  which  he  can  live,  retired,  at  smaller 
cost  than  would  be  possible,  even  with  rigid  economy,  in 
college;  but  in  general  the  difference  in  cost  between 
life  in  college  and  life  in  "diggings"  has  undoubtedly 
lessened,  owing  to  the  fact  that,  while  colleges  have  not 
raised  their  charges  in  proportion  to  the  rise  in  the  cost 
of  living,  landladies  have.  Certainly  it  is  a  delusion  to 
think  that  the  year  in  lodgings  can  do  anything  towards 
wiping  out  the  deficits  of  the  years  in  college. 


238  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

In  addition  to  the  current  expenditure  of  any  year, 
there  are  a  few  initial  expenses  for  which  a  Rhodes 
Scholar  must  be  prepared.  He  must  provide  himself 
with  linen,  cutlery,  and  crockery  for  his  rooms  in  college. 
These  will  cost  him  perhaps  £20.  If  he  plan  any  special 
outlay  on  clothes,  he  must  make  provision  for  that. 
There  will  also  be  a  few  inevitable  entrance  fees  to  swell 
his  earlier  accounts.  As  a  Rhodes  Scholar  receives  the 
first  quarter  of  his  Scholarship  (£75)  on  coming  into 
residence,  and  has  not  normally  any  considerable  pay- 
ments to  make  in  his  first  term,  either  to  college  or  to  the 
University,  he  is  for  the  moment  in  a  position  to  meet 
these  initial  charges.  That  does  not,  however,  alter  the 
fact  that  the  Scholarship  is  not  sufficient  to  cover  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  a  full  year — much  less  to  meet  in 
addition  the  non-recurring  expenses  which  face  a  man 
at  the  start.  Normally  undergraduates  on  coming  into 
residence  pay  "caution  money",  varying  from  £20  to 
£40,  which  is  returned  when  they  take  their  degree. 
Most  colleges,  however,  remit  this  charge  in  the  case  of 
Rhodes  Scholars. 

What  is  the  upshot  of  this  review?  It  is  that  a  Rhodes 
Scholar  must  not,  under  present  conditions,  expect  his 
Scholarship  to  meet  expenses,  even  with  the  bonus  of 
£50,  which  brings  the  total  stipend  at  present  up  to 
£350  psr  year.  How  much  more  will  he  need?  That 
question  does  not  admit  of  an  answer  fitted  to  every 
man  and  every  college.  It  may,  however,  be  sug- 
gested that  he  should  arrive  with  £20  in  his  pocket. 
If,  in  addition,  he  can  see  his  way  to  another  £40  a 
year,  he  should  be  able  to  come  through  on  that.  He  will, 
however,  be  better  able  to  take  full  advantage  of  his 
opportunities  if  he  can  count  on  something  more. 


APPENDIX  C 

UNIVERSITY  AND  COLLEGE  DISCIPLINE 

The  amount  of  restraint  exercised  by  the  University 
over  its  undergraduate  members  "in  statu  pupillari"  has 
decreased  with  changes  in  the  habits  of  society.  Even 
so  there  are  many  regulations  which  will  seem  strange  to 
students  from  abroad.^  The  chief  rules  now  in  force 
are  the  following: 

1.  Undergraduates  are  required  to  abstain  from  frequenting 
hotels  or  taverns,  without  permission  from  the  Proctors. 

2.  They  are  not  allowed  to  play  billiards  in  any  public  room 
before  i  P.M.  or  after  lo  P.M.;  nor  to  attend  public  race-meet- 
ings in  the  neighborhood  of  Oxford;  nor  to  keep  a  motor-car  or 
motor-cycle  without  a  licence  from  the  Junior  Proctor. 

3.  They  are  not  allowed  to  give  dances  or  to  attend  public 
subscription  dances  during  term,  or  to  attend  private  dances 
given  in  public  rooms  during  term  without  the  leave  of  the 
Proctors. 

Cap  and  gown  must  be  worn  by  all  undergraduate 
members  of  the  University  (i)  when  calling  officially 
upon  any  University  or  College  officer,  (2)  in  Chapel, 
Hall,  and  at  Lectures,  as  well  as  at  University  Sermons 
or  other  University  assemblies.  (In  actual  practice  the 
cap  is  discarded  except  on  such  occasions  as  matricula- 
tion, examinations,  and  degree-days.)  In  addition  they 
are  required  by  statute  to  wear  cap  and  gown  "qiwties 

'  See  University  Statutes,  Title  XV,  De  Moribus  Conformandis. 


240  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

in  publicum  prodeunt"  but  this  rule  has  been  narrowed 
by  custom  so  that  cap  and  gown  must  be  worn  only  at 
University  ceremonies,  or  at  examinations,  or  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  and  gown  must  be  worn  when  out  of 
College  after  9  P.  M.  in  Trinity  term  or  after  8  P.  M. 
in  Michaelmas  and  Hilary  terms.  At  University  ex- 
aminations, matriculation,  and  when  receiving  degrees, 
undergraduates  must  wear  white  bow  ties  and  dark  coats. 

The  cap  required  is  the  ordinary  black  mortarboard. 
The  gown,  for  Scholars,  is  a  full  black  gown  reaching 
just  below  the  knees,  and  with  wide  flowing  sleeves; 
for  the  Commoners  it  is  a  black  sleeveless  garment 
about  the  length  of  a  norfolk  jacket,  with  a  vSort  of  sailor 
collar  and  a  curious  streamer  hanging  from  each  shoulder. 
A  cap  and  gown  more  suited  to  the  sex  has  been  approved 
as  official  academical  dress  for  the  lady  undergraduates. 

The  punishments  inflicted  for  breaches  of  University 
rules  are:  (i)  pecuniary  fines;  (2)  gating,  i.  e.  confine- 
ment within  the  walls  of  the  ofl'ender's  College  or  Hall, 
or  to  his  lodgings,  after  a  certain  hour;  (3)  rustication, 
i.  e.  banishment  from  the  University  for  a  definite  period ; 
(4)  expulsion  from  the  University. 

Each  College  or  Hall  has  rules  and  regulations  of  its 
own  governing  the  conduct  of  its  undergraduate  mem- 
bers, but  there  are  certain  general  rules  common  to  all. 
Undergraduates  are  required  to  begin  residence  in  each 
term  on  a  certain  day,  to  reside  a  prescribed  length  of 
time  (about  eight  weeks)  and  not  to  leave  Oxford  either 
for  the  day  or  night  without  permission  from  the  proper 
college  authority.  On  the  other  hand,  permission  must 
be  obtained  to  stay  in  Oxford  during  vacation.  They 
are  usually  expected,  but  not  compelled,  to  attend  the 


DISCIPLINE  241 

college  chapel ;  but  in  many  Colleges  presence  at  roll-call 
(shortly  before  morning  chapel)  is  accepted  as  an  alter- 
native. Students  who  are  not  members  of  the  Church  of 
England  are  not  expected  to  attend  chapel,  but  must 
attend  roll-call  unless  they  make  arrangements  for  the 
acceptance  of  attendance  at  their  respective  church 
services  as  an  alternative.  The  gates  of  Colleges  and 
Halls  are  closed  at  9.10  P.  M. ;  after  that  hour  no  under- 
graduate is  allowed,  without  special  permission,  to  leave 
his  College  or  Hall,  and  at  most  Colleges  a  small  fine 
(ranging  from  two  pence  to  a  shilling — according  to  the 
lateness  of  the  hour)  is  imposed  upon  those  who  come 
in.  Lodging-house  keepers  are  required  to  close  their 
doors  at  10  P.  M.,  and  to  report  students  who  come  in 
after  that  hour.  No  undergraduate  is  allowed  to  remain 
out  of  College  or  lodging  after  midnight  without  special 
permission  from  his  College;  violation  of  this  rule  is 
severely  punished. 


APPENDIX  D 

UNIVERSITY  COURTS 

The  University  of  Oxford  has  long  enjoyed  special 
jurisdiction  where  its  resident  members  are  concerned, 
through  a  series  of  Royal  Charters,  since  confirmed  by 
Acts  of  Parliament.  In  mediaeval  days  of  town  and  gown 
jealousy  and  riots  this  jurisdiction  was  of  great  impor- 
tance. Today  few  undergraduates  have  occasion  to 
make  use  of  it  and  many  probably  do  not  know  of  its 
existence. 

This  jurisdiction  is  or  has  been  exercised  by  three 
courts: 

I.   The  Court  of  the  Chancellor, 

This  Court  sits  on  Fridays  during  term,  and  when  necessary 
out  of  term,  in  the  Convocation  House.  It  has  exclusive  and 
unlimited  jurisdiction  in  all  civil  causes  of  action  not  relating  to 
freehold.  It  administers  the  common  law,  and  its  procedure  is 
under  rules  issued  by  the  Vice-Chancellor  with  the  approval  of 
the  Rule  Committee  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  officers  of  the 
Court,  under  the  Vice-Chancellor,  are  the  "Assessor"  or  "Deputy", 
appointed  by  the  Vice-Chancellor,  who  acts  as  judge  ordinary-, 
and  must  be  a  barrister  of  at  least  five  years'  standing  and  a 
member  of  Convocation;  the  Registrar,  appointed  by  the  Chan- 
cellor, who  must  be  a  solicitor  and  a  member  of  Convocation; 
and  a  number  of  "proctors",  who  must  also  be  solicitors.  An 
appeal  lies  from  this  Court  to  a  divisional  court  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  The  ecclesiastical  and  criminal  jurisdiction  of  this  Court 
is  obsolete,  and  its  probate  jurisdiction  has  been  taken  away  by 
Act  of  Parliament. 


UNIVERSITY  COURTS  243 

2.  The  Court  of  the  High  Steward  was  created  under  Henry 
IV  to  deal  with  cases  of  felony  and  mayhem  committed  by 
Scholars.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  sat  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies, and  is  unlikely  to  be  called  in  the  future. 

3.  The  Chancellor,  Vice-Chancellor,  and  the  "Deputy"  are 
Justices  of  the  Peace  for  Oxford,  Oxfordshire,  and  Berkshire,  in 
cases  where  Scholars  are  concerned. 


APPENDIX  E 

THE  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY  UNION 

American  professors  and  students  coming  to  the  British 
Isles  for  study  or  to  enter  British  Universities  are  invited 
to  register,  without  cost,  upon  their  arrival  at  the 
office  of  the  British  Division  of  the  American  University- 
Union  in  Europe,  50,  Russell  Square,  London,  W.  C.  i. 
The  Union  has  established  relations  with  the  British 
Universities,  Learned  Societies  and  Libraries  by  which 
this  office  is  able  to  give  cards  of  introduction  to  suitable 
students  as  well  as  advice  upon  matters  of  interest  to 
visiting  scholars.  Owing  to  the  organization  (so  different 
from  that  of  American  Universities),  of  Oxford,  Cam- 
bridge, London  and  other  British  Universities  it  is  of 
advantage  that  applicants,  whose  arrangements  are  not 
otherwise  made  to  enter  these  institutions,  approach 
them  through  the  office  of  the  Union.  Intending  appli- 
cants should  communicate  with  the  office  early  in  the 
year  as  these  institutions  have  long  waiting  lists  and 
as  a  rule  college  lists  for  entrance  in  the  Autumn  are 
closed  in  the  Spring  or  at  the  latest  in  July.  The 
office  and  the  institutions  have  application  blanks. 
These  blanks  may  also  be  had  from  the  American 
Oxonian. 

Incidentally,  the  office  offers  advice  as  to  lodgings, 
may  be  used  for  a  temporary  postal  address,  and  as  a 
headquarters  to  learn  the  addresses  of  visiting  scholars 
and  a  place  to  make  appointments  to  meet  them.  The 
Women's  Advisory  Committee  of  prominent  American 
and  English  ladies  open  possibilities  of  hospitality  in 
English  homes. 


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APPENDIX  G 
EXAMINATIONS  FOR  THE  B.A.  DEGREE 

USUALLY  BEFORE  OR  UPON  COMING  INTO  RESIDENCE 

Elemental  J'  examina- 
tion in 
I.   (a)  Latin 

(b)  Greek 
II.   (a)   English 

(6)  French 

(c)  German 
III.   (a)  Mathematics 

(b)  Natural  Science 

(c)  Mathematics 
and  Natural 
Science. 

Candidates  must  pass 
both  subjects  of  I  and 
the  first  two  of  III;  or 
onefrom  eachGroupand 
four  in  all,  of  which  two 
must  be  languages  other 
than  English. 

Note.  Candidates  for  the  B.A.  in  Final  Honour  Schools  Nos.  i,  5.  6, 
7,  8,  9,  and  10,  who  do  not  offer  Greek  in  Responsions  are  required  to 
offer  Greek  or  Greek  history  or  literature  studied  in  texts  with  translation 
at  their  intermediate  examination. 


I.  Responsions 

(Compulsory,  but 
Junior  and  Senior 
Students  exempt.) 


Qualifies     for     all 
Intermediate 
Examinations. 


INTERMEDIATE:  FIRST  PUBLIC  EXAMINATION 

II.  Holy  Scripture,  or  substituted  book  (compulsory,  except  for  Senior 

Students) 

III.  One  of  the  following  (compulsory  except  for  Senior  Students): 

(I)  Latin,  Greek 
(II)  English, Greek  His- 
tory or  Literature, 
French,  German 
(III)  Mathematics, Log- 
ic, Elements  of  Pol- 
itical Economy        f  Qualifies     for     all 
Candidates  must  pass        finals, 
one  subject   from    each 
group  and  four  subjects 
in  all;  but  may  not  offer 
more  than  one   subject 
from  Group  III. 


I.  Pass  Moderations  ' 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  B.A.  DEGREE      247 


2.  Honour       Moder-  f  Greek  and  Latin  litera- 


alions in  Greek b- 
Latin  Literature 

3.  Honour  Moder- 
ations in  Mathe- 
matics 


Jurisprudence 
Preliminary 


Science  Prelimi- 
nary 


History  Prelimi- 
nary 


7.  Agriculture    and 

Forestry     Pre- 
liminary 

8.  Certain  specified 

groups  of  the  Fi- 
nal Pass  School 


ture,    composition, 
philology,  Logic,  etc.  J 

Pure  Mathematics  (Al- 
gebra, Geometry,  Trig- 
onometry, Calculus) 
Mechanics 

English  Constitutional 
History, 

Institutes    of    Justinian 

Barth^lemy's  Le  Gouver- 
nement  de  la  France 

Latin  and  French  unpre- 
pared translation 

Mathematics 

Mechanics  and  Physics 

Chemistry 

Biology  (Zoology  and 
Botany) 

Physics  and  Chemistry 
(Candidate  must  pass 
any  two  of  the  above) 

f  History 

I  Greek  or  Latin  and  one 
I       modern  language 
[  Elements  of  Economics 

(Elements  of  natural  sci- 
ences related  to  Agri- 
culture and  Forestry; 
one  modern  language 


1  Qualifies     for     all 
I      Finals. 


Qualifies  for 
Finals 


all 


Qualifies  for   all 
Finals. 


Qualifies 
Finals. 


for   all 


Qualifies   for   all 
Finals. 


Qualifies    for 
Finals. 


all 


A  (i)  Greek  and  Latin; ) 
or  [ 

B   (2)  and  B  (5)  French  \ 
I      and  German 


Qualifies 
Finals. 


for   all 


FINAL:  SECOND  PUBLIC  EXAMINATION 


IV.    Either. 

A .  One  of  the  following  Honour  Schools 

1.  Lilerae  Humaniores 

2.  Mathematics 

.  3.   Natural  Science: 

a.  Astronomy 

b.  Physics 

c.  Chemistry 

d.  Animal  Physiologj' 

e.  Zoology 
/.  Botany 
g.  Geology 


248  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

h.  Engineering  Science 

Supplementary  Subjects: 
Crystallography 
Mineralogy 
Anthropology 

4.  Jurisprudence 

5.  Modern  History 

6.  Theology 

7.  Oriental  Studies 

8.  English  Language  and  Literature 

9.  Modern  Languages: 

a.  French 

b.  German 

c.  Italian 

d.  Spanish 

e.  Russian 

/.  Mediaeval  and  Modern  Greek 
10.  Philosophy,  Politics  and  Economics 
or 

B.  Pass  School:  subjects  selected  from  following: 

Groups    A  (ancient  languages) 

B  (modern  subjects,  including  French  and  German) 
C  Mathematics  and  Science 
D  Theological  Subjects 
E  Military  History. 
or 

C.  Aericulture  and  Forestry 


APPENDIX  H 


LIST  OF  PROFESSORS,  READERS,  LECTURERS, 

AND  TUTORS 
MEMBERS  OF  THE  SEVERAL  FACULTIES 


1921-1922 


1.  Theology 


Allen,  Rev.  G.  B..  B.D.,  M.A.,  Principal 

of  St.  Edmund  Hall. 
Bartlet,  Rev.  J.  V.,  M.  A..  Exeter 
Bate.   Rev.  H.  N.,    M.A.,    Magdalen. 
Speaker's  Lecturer  in  Biblical  Studies 
Brightman,  Rev.  F.  E.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Brook.  Rev.  V.  J.  K.,  M..A..,  Lincoln 
Burney,    Rev.    C.    F..    M.A.,    D.Litt.. 
Oriel,   Oriel   Professor   of  the   Inter- 
pretation of  Holy  Scripture 
Burroughs,  Rev.  E.  A.,  D.D.,  Trinity 
Campbell.  Rev.  J.  McL.,  M.A.,  Hert- 


ford 
Carpenter.   Rev.  J. 

Corpus  Christi 
CoUingwood,  R.  G., 
Cooke,     Rev.     G. 


E.,  M.A.,  D.Litt., 

M.A.,  Pembroke 
A..     D.D..     Christ 

Church.  Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew 
Davies.     Rev.    A.     LI.,     M.A.,    Jesus, 

Grinfield  Lecturer  on  the  Septuagint. 
Dodd,  C.  H.,  M.A..  University 
Emmet,    Rev.    C.    W.,    B.D..    M.A.. 

University 
Gibbon.  Rev.  H.  H..  M.A..  Balliol 
Graham,  Rev.  E.,  M.A.,  Oriel 
Gray,     Rev.     G.     B..     M.A.,     D.Litt., 

Non-Collegiate 
Green,  Rev.  F.  W.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Griffith,  F.  LI.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Headlam,    Rev.    A.    C,    D.D.,    Christ 

Church,  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity 
Hodgson,  Rev.  L.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Jacks,  L.  P..  M..-^.,  Exeter 
Kidd,    Rev.    B.    J..    D.D..    Warden    of 


Keble 
Kirk,  Rev.  K.  E. 
Knapp,  Rev.  C, 
Lightfoot,    Rev. 

College 
Lock,   Rev.  W., 


M.A.,  Magdalen 
D.D.,  Merton 
R.    H.,    M.A.,    New 


D.D..  Christ  Church, 
Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity 
Loewe,  H.  M.  J.,  M.A..  Exeter 
Lowe,   E.  A..    M..\.,    Corpus    Christi, 
Lecturer  in  Palaeography 


Major,    Rev.   H.   D.   A.,    B.D..    M.A., 

Exeter 
Marett,  R.  R.,  M.A.,  D.Sc.,  Exeter 
Micklem,  N.,  M.A.,  New  College 
Narborough.    Rev.    F.    D.    V.,    M.A., 

Worcester 
Ottley,  Rev.  R.L.,D.D.. Christ  Church, 
Regius  Professorof  Pastoral  Theology 
Pullan,  Rev.  L..  D.D.,  St.  John's 
Rawlinson,  Rev.  A.  E.  J.,  B.D.,  M.A., 

Christ  Church 
Selbie,   Rev.  W.   B.,   D.D..   Brasenose, 
Wilde     Lecturer    in     Natural     and 
Comparative  Religion 
Simpson,    Rev.    D.    C.    B.D.,    M.A.. 

Wad  ham 
Spencer,  Rev.  F.  A.  M.,  M.A.,  Brase- 
nose 
Stenning,  J.  F.,  M.A..  Wadham 
Stone,  Rev.  Darwell.  D.D.,  Merton 
Streeter,  Rev.  B.  H.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Turner,  C.  H.,  M.A.,  Magdalen,  Dean 

Ireland's  Professor  of  Exegesis 
Watson.    Rev.    E.    W..    D.D.,    Christ 
Church,  Regius  Professor  of  Ecclesi- 
astical History 
Webb,  C.  C.  J.,  M.A.,  Magdalen,  Oriel 
Professor  of   the   Philosophy   of   the 
Christian  Religion 
Williams,    Rev.    N.    P.,    B.D.,    M.A.. 

Exeter 
Woodward.  E.  LI..  M.A..  All  Souls 

2.  Law 

Allen,  C.  K..  M.A..  University 
Archibald,    J.    G.,    M.A.,    All    Souls, 

Lecturer  in  Private  International  Law 
Carter,  A.  T.,  D.C.L.,  Christ  Church 
Cheshire,  G.  C,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Exeter 
de    Zulueta,    F.,    D.C.L.,    All    Souls, 

Regius  Professor  of  Civil  Law 
Hazel,  A.  E.  W.,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Jesus, 

Lecturer  in   Criminal   Law  and  the 

Law  of  Evidence 
Hilliard,  E.,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Balliol 


250 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


Holdsworth.  W.  S.,  D.C.L.,  St.  John's. 
All  Souls  Reader  in  English  Law  • 

Landon.  P.  A.,  M.A..  Trinity 

Lee,  R.  W.,  D.C.L..  All  Souls,  Professor 
of  Roman-Dutch  Law 

Miles,  Sir  J.  C,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Merton 
.  Radcliffe,  G.  R.  Y.,  M.A.,  New  College 

Stallybrass,  W.  T.  S.,  M.A.,  Braseiiose 

Trevelyan.  Sir  E.  J.,  D.C.L.,  All 
Souls,  Reader  in  Indian  Law 

Vinogradoff,  Sir  P.,  M.A.,  Hon.  D.C.L.. 
Corpus  Christi,  Corpus  Christi  Pro- 
fessor of  Jurisprudence 

Williams,  I.,  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Society 
of  O.Kford  Home-Students 

3.  Medicine 

Adams,  P.  E.  H.,  B.M.,  M.A.,  Exeter, 

Reader  in  Ophthalmology 
Bevers,  E.  C,  B.M.,  M.A.,  St.  John's, 

Litchfield  Lecturer  in  Surgery 
Blackwood,    B.   M.,    M.A.,   Somerville 

College 
Chapman,  D.  L.,  M.A.,  Jesus 
Collier,    W.,    M.A.,    Exeter,    Litchfield 

Lecturer  in  Medicine 
Collier,  W.  T.,  B.M.,  M.A.,  Balliol 
DLxey,  F.  A.,  D.M.,  Wadham 
Dodds-Parker,  A.P.,  B.M.,  M.A.,  Mag- 
dalen, Lecturer  in  Applied  Anatomy 
Douglas,  C.  G.,  B.Sc,  D.M.,  St.  John's 
Dreyer,  G.,  M.A.,  Lincoln,  Professor  of 

Pathology 
Gardner,  A.  D.,  D.M.,  University 
Garrod,  Sir  A.  E.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church. 

Regius  Professor  of  Medicine 
George,  H.  G.,  M.A.,  Jesus 
Gibson,  A.   G.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church, 

Lecturer  in  Morbid  Anatomy 
Gunn,  J.  A.,  M.A.,  Queen's,  Professor 

of  Pharmacology 
Heathcote,    R.    St.    A.,    B.Sc,    D.M., 

New  College 
Heaton,  T.  B.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church 
Liddell,  E.  G.  T.,  B.M.,  M.A.,  Trinity 
Mallam,  E.,  D.M.,  Magdalen 
Marsh,  J.  E.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Priestley,  J.  G.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church 
Sherrington,  Sir  C.  S.,  M.A.,  Magdalen, 

Waynflete  Professor  of  Physiology 
Thomson,  A.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church,  Dr. 

Lee's  Professor  of  Anatomy 
Walker,  E.  W.  A.,  D.Sc,  D.M.,  Uni- 
versity, Lecturer  in  Pathology 
Waters,  W.  A.  P.,  D.M.,  Brasenose 
Whitelocke,    H.    A.    B.,    B.M.,    M.A., 

Christ  Church 
Whitley,  E.,  M.A.,  Trinity 

4.  Literae  Humaniores 

Adams,  W.  G.  S.,  All  Souls.  Gladstone 
Professor  of  Political  Theorj-  and 
Institutions 


Allen,  T.  W.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Anderson,    J.    G.     C,     M.A.,     Christ 
Church,    Lecturer   in   Roman   Epig- 
raphy 
Bailey,  C,  M.A.,  Balliol 
Barber,  E.  A.,  M.A.,  Exeter 
Barrington-Ward,  J.  G.,   M.A.,   Christ 

Church 
Beazley,  J.  D.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church. 

Lecturer  on  Greek  Vases 
Bell,  J.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Benecke,  P.  V.  M.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Blunt,  H.  W.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
Brabant,  F.  H.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Brewis,  G.  R.,  M.A.,  Hertford 
Carlyle,    Rev.    A.    J.,    M.A.,    D.Litt., 

University 
Carritt,  E.  F.,  M.A.,  University 
Casson,  S.,  M.A.,  New  College 
Clark,   A.    C,    M.A.,    Corpus   Christi. 

Corpus  Christi  Professor  of  Latin 
Collingwood,  R.  G.,  M.A.,  Pembroke 
Dawkins,  R.  M.,  M.A.,  Exeter,  Bywater 

and  Sotheby  Professor  of  Byzantine 

and  Modern  Greek 
Denniston,  J.  D.,  M.A.,  Hertford 
Dodd,  P.  W..  M.A.,  Jesus 
Drake,  H.  L.,  M.A.,  Pembroke 
Driver,  G.  R.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Dundas.  R.  H.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
Evans,  Sir  A.  J.,  M.A.,  D.Litt.,  Brase- 
nose, Professor  of  Prehistoric  Archae- 
ology 
Farnell,  L.  R.,  M.A..  D.  Litt.,  Rector 

of  Exeter 
Farquharson,  A.  S.  L.,  M.A.,  University 
Fotheringham,    J.    K..    M.A.,    D.Litt.. 

Magdalen 
Gardner.    P.,    M.A.,    D.Litt.,    Lincoln, 

Lincoln    and    Merton    Professor    of 

Classical  Archaeology  and  Art 
Garrod,  H.  W.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Genner,  E.  E.,  M.A..  Jesus 
Godley.    A.D..    M.A..    Hon.    D.Litt.. 

Madgalen.  Public  Orator 
Grenfell,  B.  P..  M.A.,  D.Litt..  Queen's. 

Professor  of  Papyrology 
Griffith.  F.  LI..  M.A.,  Queen's.  Reader 

in  Egyptology 
Grundv.  G.  B..  M.A..  D.Litt..  Corpus 

Christi 
Hall.  F.  W.,  M.A.,  St.  John's 
Hardy,  E.  G.,  M.A.,  D.Litt.,  Principal 

of  Jesus 
Henderson.     B.     W..     M.A.,     D.Litt., 

Exeter 
Henderson,  H.  L.,  M.A.,  New  College 
Higham,  T.  F.,  M.A.,  Trinity 
Holroyd,  M.,  M.A.,  Brasenose 
How,  W.  W.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Hunt,  A.  S.,   M.A.,   D.Litt.,   Queen's. 

Professor  of  Papj'rology 
Jacks.  M.  L..  M.A..  Wadham 
Jenkinson.  A.  J..  M.A..  Brasenose 


LIST  OF  THE  SEVERAL  FACULTIES      251 


Joachim,    H.    H.,    M.A..   N'cw   College, 

Wjkeham  Professor  of  Logic 
Jones,      H.     Stuart,     M.A.,     D.Litt., 

Erase  nose,     Camden     Professor     of 

Ancient  Historj' 
Joseph.  H.  W.  B.,  M.A..  New  College 
Kendrew,  W.  G.,  M.A.,  Non-Collegiate 
Last,  H.  M.,  M.A.,  St.  John's 
Lindsay,  A.  D..  M.A..  Balliol 
Livingstone.     R.    \V..     M.A.,    Corpus 

Christi 
Lorimer,     H.     L.,     M.A.,     Somerville 

College 
Lowe.    E.    A.,    M.A..    Corpus   Christi, 

Lecturer  in  Pateography 
McCann,  Rev.  P.  J..  M.A..  St.  Benct's 

Hall 
McCutcheon,    K.   S.   H..   M.A.,   Lady 

Margaret  Hall 
Macgregor.  D.  C.  M.A.,  Balliol 
Marchant.  E.  C.  M.A.,  Lincoln 
Marett.  R.  R..  M.A..  D.Sc.  Exeter 
Martindale,  Rev.  C.  C,  M.A.,  Campion 

Hall 
Matheson,  P.  E.,  M.A..  New  College 
Munro,    J.    A.    R.,    M.A.,    Rector    of 

Lincoln 
Murphy.  N.  R.,  ^^A..  Hertford 
Murray,  Gilbert.  ALA.,  D.Litt..  Christ 

Church.  Regius  Professor  of  Greek 
Myres.    J.    L..    M.    A..    New   College. 

Wykeham      Professor     of     Ancient 

History 
Owen,  A.  S..  M.A.,  Keble 
Owen.  S.  G..  M.A..  Christ  Church 
Parker,  H.  M.  D.,  M.A.  Hertford 
Paton.  H.  J.,  ALA.,  Queen's 
Phelps.  W..  M.A..  Corpus  Christi 
Pickard-Cambridge,     A.     W.,      M.A., 

Balliol 
Pickard-Cambridge.     \V.     A.,      M.A., 

Worcester 
Poole,    D.    J.    L.,    M.A.,    Society    of 

O.xford  Home-Students 
Powell,  J.  U..  M.A.,  St.  John's 
Poynton.  A.  B.,  ALA.,  University 
Prichard.  H.  A.,  M.A..  Trinity 
Reade,  VV.  H.  V.,  M.A..  Keble 
Richards.  Rev.  G.  C.  B.D.,  ALA.,  Oriel 
Rogers,  A.   M.  A.   H.,   ALA.,  Society 

of  O.xford  Home-Students 
Ross.  W.  D..  ALA..  Oriel 
Schiller.  F.  C.  S.,  M.A.,  D.Sc..  Corpus 

Christi 
Selbie,  Rev.  W.  B.,  D.D.,   Brasenose 
Seymour,  P.  A..  M.A..  Jesus 
Smith.  A.  H.,  ALA.,  New  College 
Smith,  J.  A.,  ALA..  Alagdalen.  Wayn- 

flete  Professor  of  Moral  and  Aleta- 

physical  Philosophy 
Stevenson.  G.  H.,  ALA.,  University 
Stewart,  J.   A.,   ALA.,  Corpus  Christi. 

White's    Professor     of     Moral    Phi- 
losophy 


Stocks.  J.  L.,  ALA..  St.  John's 
Taylor,     AL     V.,     M.A.,     Somerville 

College 
Tod.  M.  N.,  ALA.,  Oriel,  Lecturer  in 

Greek  Epigraphy 
Upcott,  E.  A..  ALA.,  Balliol 
Vinogradoflf,  Sir  P.,  ALA.,  Hon.  D.C.L., 

Corpus  Christi,  Corpus  Christi  Pro- 
fessor of  Jurisprudence 
Wace,  Rev.  H.  C,  ALA.,  Brasenose 
Wade-Gery.  H.  T..  ALA.,  Wadham 
Walker,  Rev.  E.  AL,  ALA.,  Queen's 
Webb,  C.  C.  J.,  ALA..  Alagdalen.  Oriel 

Professor  of  the   Philosophy  of  the 

Christian  Religion 
Wells.  J..  ALA.,  Warden  of  Wadham 
Whatley,  N.,  ALA.,  Hertford 
Wright.     J.,     ALA.,     Exeter,     Corpus 

Christi     Professor    of    Comparative 

Philology 

5.  Modern  History 

Adams,  W.  G.  S.,  ALA.,  All  Souls.  Glad- 
stone Professor  of  Political  Theory 
and  Institutions 

Ady,  C.  AL.  M.A.,  St.  Hugh's  College 

Armstrong.  E..  ALA..  Pro-Provost  of 
Queen's 

Atkinson,  C.  T..  ALA..  Exeter 

Baker.  J.  B..  ALA..  Censor  of  Non- 
Collegiate  Students 

Beckit,  H.  O.,  ALA.,  Balliol,  Reader 
of  Geography 

Bell,  K.  N..  ALA..  Balliol 

Bruce,  Hon.  A.  AL,  ALA.,  Somer\-ille 
College 

Burrows.  C.  M.  E.,  ALA.,  Principal  of 
the  Society  of  Oxford  Home-Students 

Butler,  C.  V.,  ALA.,  Society  of  Oxford 
Home-Students 

Butler,  R.  F.,  ALA..  Society  of  Oxford 
Home-Students 

Cariyle.  Rev.  A.  J..  ALA..  D.Litt.,  Uni- 
versity 

Carlyle.  E.  L,  AL.A.,  Lincoln 

Clark.  A.  C.  ALA..  Corpus  Christi. 
Corpus  Christi  Professor  of  Latin 

Clark.  G.  N..  ALA..  Oriel 

Clarke.  AL  V.,  AL.A.,  Somerville  College 

Coate.  AL.  ALA..  St.  Hilda's  Hall 

Costin,  W.  C.  ALA..  vSt.  John's 

Coupland,  R..  ALA.,  All  Souls,  Beit 
Professor  of  Colonial  History 

Cruttwell.  C.  R.  AL  F..  ALA..  Hertford 

Davies.  G..  ALA.,  Pembroke 

Dibbee,  G.  B..  ALA.,  All  Souls 

Edgeworth,  F.  Y.,  ALA.,  All  Souls. 
Professor  Emeritus 

Edwards,  J.  G.,  M..\.,  Jesus 

Egerton,  H.  E..  M.A.,  All  Souls 

Elton,  G.,  ALA..  Queen's 

Emden,  A.  B..  ALA..  St.  Edmund  Hall 

Felling,   K.   G.,   ALA.,   Christ   Church 


255 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


Firth.  C.  H.,  M.A.,  Oriel.  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  Modern  History 
Foligno,  C,  M.A.,  Queen's.  Serena  Pro- 
fessor of  Italian  Studies 
Gretton,  R.  H.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Grier,    L.,    M.A.,    Principal    of    Lady 

Margaret  Hall 
Hassall,  A.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
Hodgkin,  R.  H..  M.A.,  Queen's 
Jamison,  E.  M..  M.A..  Lady  Margaret 

Hall 
Jeffery,  R.  W.,  M.A.,  Brasenose 
Johnson,  Rev.  A.  H.,  M.A.,  All  Souls 
Jolliffe,  J.  E.  A..  M.A.,  Keble 
Jones,     H.     Stuart,     M.A.,     D.Litt., 
Brasenose,     Camden     Professor     of 
Ancient  History 
Lee,  S.  G..  M.A..  Magdalen 
Lees.  B.  A..  M.A..  Lady  Margaret  Hall 
Lennard,  R.  V..  M.A.,  Wadhara 
Levett.  A.  E.,  M.A..  St.  Hilda's  Hall 
Leys.  K.  K.  M..  M.A..  University 
Leys.    M.    D.    R..    M.A.,    Somerville 

College 
Lindsay,  A.  D..  M.A.,  Balliol 
Lipson.  E..  ALA..  New  College 
Lodge.  Sir  Richard.   M.A.,    Brasenose, 
Ford's  Lecturer  in   English    History 
Lovett,  Sir  H.  Verney,   M.A.,    Balliol, 

Reader  in  Indian  History 
Lowe,    E.   A.,    M.A.,    Corpus    Christi. 

Lecturer  in  Palaeography 
Marriott,  J.  A.  R.,  M.A.,  Worcester 
Masterman,  J.  C,  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
MacMunn,    N.    E.,    M.A.,    Society   of 

Oxford  Home-Students 
Montague,  F.  C,  M.A.,  Oriel 
Mowat,  R.  B..  M.A.,  Corpus  Christi 
Myres.  J.  L..  M.A.,  New  College.  Wyke- 

ham  Professor  of  Ancient  History 
Ogg.  D..  M.A.,  New  College 
Ogilvie.  F.  \V..  M.A.,  Trinity 
Oman.  Sir  C.  W.  C,  M.A..  All  Souls, 
Chichele  Professor  of  Modern  History 
Patterson,  Rev.  M.  W.,  M.A.,  Trinity 
Penson,  Sir  T.  H.,  M.A.,  Worcester 
Poole,  A.  L.,  M.A.,  St.  John's 
Poole,  R.  L.,  M.A.,  Magdalen,  Lecturer 

in  Diplomatic 
Rice-Oxley,  L.,  M.A.,  Keble 
Richards,  Rev.  G.  C,  B.D.,  M.A..  Oriel 
Roberts,  P.  E.,  J.LA.,  Worcester 
Ross,  W.  D.,  M.A.,  Oriel 
Smith,  A.  L.,  ALA..  Master  of  Balliol 
Stampa.  L..  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Stevenson.  G.  H.,  M.A.,  University 
Stone.  C.  G..  M.A..  Balliol 
.Sumner.  B.  H..  M.A..  All  Souls 
Taylor.     M.     V..     M.A..     Somer\-ille 

College 
Thompson.  Rev.  J.  M.,  M.A.,   Magda- 
len 
Urquhart.  F.  F..  M.A..  Balliol 


Vinogradoff.  Sir  P.,  M.A.,  Hon.  D.C.L.. 
Corpus  Christi,  Corpus  Christi  Pro- 
fessor of  Jurisprudence 
Wakeling.  G.  H..  M.A.,  Brasenose 
Watson.    Rev.    E.    W..    D.D.,    Christ 
Church.  Regius  Professor  of  Ecclesi- 
astical History 
Weaver.  J.  R.  H..  M.A.,  Trinity 
Wells.  J..  M.A.,  Warden  of  Wadham 
Wickham  Legg,  L.  G.,  M.A.,  New  Col- 
lege 
Wilkinson,    H.    S.,    M.A..    All    Souls. 
Chichele  Professor  of  Military  His- 
tory 
Woodward.  E.  LI..  M.A.,  All  Souls 
Wrong.  E.  M..  M.A..  Magdalen,  Beit 
Lecturer  in  Colonial  History 

6.  Mediaeval  and  Modern 
Languages 

Berthon,  H.  E..  M.A..  Wadham,  Tay- 
lorian  Lecturer  in  French 

Brett-Smith,  H.  F.  B..  M.A.,  Corpus 
Christi 

Bruce,  Hon.  A.  M.,  M.A.,  Somerville 
College 

Carlyle,  Rev.  A.  J.,  M.A..  D.Litt.. 
University 

Collingwood,    R.  G.,  M.A..   Pembroke 

Craigie,  W.  A..  M.A.,  Oriel,  Rawlinson 
and  Bosworth  Professor  of  Anglo- 
Saxon 

Darbishire.  H.,  M.A.,  Somerville 
College 

Dawkins,  R.  M.,  M.A.,  Exeter,  Bywater 
and  Sotheby  Professor  of  Byzantine 
and  Modern  Greek 

de  Artcaga,  F.,  M.A.,  Worcester,  Pro- 
fessor of  and  Taylorian  Lecturer  in 
Spanish 

Del  Re,  A.,  Taylorian  Lecturer  in 
French 

Deneke,  H.  C.,  M.A.,  Lady  Margaret 
Hall 

Ewert,  A.,  M.A.,  St.  John's,  Taylorian 
Lecturer  in  French 

Famell,  V.,  M.A.,  Somerville  College 

Farquharson,  A.  S.  L.,  M.A.,  Univer- 
sity 

Fiedler.  H.  G.,  M.A..  Queen's.  Tay- 
lorian Professor  of  the  German 
Language  and  Literature 

Foligno.  C,  M.A.,  Queen's,  Serena 
Professor  of  Italian  Studies 

Forbes,  N.,  M.A.,  Balliol,  Professor  of 
and  Reader  in  Russian 

Fraser,  J.,  M.A.,  Jesus,  Jesus  Professor 
of  Celtic 

Garabedian,  D.,  M.A.,  Non-Collegiate 

Henderson,  B.  W.,  M.A.,  D.Litt., 
Exeter, 

Jacks,  M.L.,  M.A.,  Wadham 


LIST  OF  THE  SEVERAL  FACULTIES      253 


Jourdain,  E.  F.,  M.A..  Principal  of 
St.  Hugh's  College,  Taylorian  Lec- 
turer in  French 

Kemshead,  C.  T.  T.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 

Ker,  W.  P.,  M.A.,  All  Souls,  Professor 
of  Poetry 

Kolkhorst,  G.  A.,  B.A.,  Exeter,  Tay- 
lorian Lecturer  in  Spanish 

Lee,  M.  L.,  ^LA.,  Society  of  Oxford 
Home-Students 

Lees,  B.  A.,  ALA.,  Lady  Margaret  Hall 

McKenzie,  R.,  M.A.,  St.  John's 

Montgomery,  M.,  B.Litt.,  M.A.,  Lin- 
coln, Taylorian  Lecturer  in  German 

Nichol  Smith,  D.,  M.A.,  Worcester, 
Goldsmiths'  Reader  in  English 

Onions,  C.  T.,  M.A.,  Oriel,  Lecturer 
in  English 

Pope,  AL  K.,  ALA.,  Somerville  College, 
Taylorian  Lecturer  in  French 

Raleigh,  Sir  W.  A.,  M..A.,  Merton, 
Merton  ProfessorofEnglishLiteraturc 

Ridley,  Rev.  U.  R.,  M.A.,  Balliol 

Rooke,  E.  W..  M.A.,  St.  Hilda's  Hall 

Rudler,  G.,  ALA.,  Worcester,  Marshal 
Foch  Professor  of  French  Literature 

Shaw,  AL  R.  B.,  ALA.,  St.  Hugh's 
College 

Simpson,  P.,  AI.A.,  Oriel,  Lecturer  in 
English 

Skipworth,  AL  G.,  ALA.,  Lady 
Margaret  Hall 

Spens,  J.,  AL.-^.,  Lady  Alargaret  Hall 

Studer,  P.,  ALA.,  Exeter,  Taylorian 
Professor  of  the  Romance  Languages 

Taylor,  D.  O.,  ALA.,  Society  of  Oxford 
Home-Students 

Walker,  Rev.  E.  AL,  M.A.,  Queen's 

Wardale,  E.  E..  ALA.,  St.  Hugh's 
College 

Waters,  E.  G.  R..  M.A.,  Keble.  Tay- 
lorian Lecturer  in  French 

Wilkinson,  C.  H.,  M.A.,  Worcester 

Wright,  J.,  ALA.,  Exeter,  Corpus 
Christi  Professor  of  Comparative 
Philology 

Wyld,  H.  C.  K.,  B.Litt.,  ALA..  Merton, 
Alerton  Professor  of  English  Lan- 
guage and  Literature 

7.  Oriental  Languages 

Bumey,  Rev.  C.  P.,  ALA.,  D.Litt., 
Oriel,  Oriel  Professor  of  the  Interpre- 
tation of  Holy  Scripture 

Cooke,  Rev.  G.  A.,  D.D.,  Christ 
Church,  Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew 

Dewhurst,  R.  P.,  ALA.,  Balliol,  Lec- 
turer in  Hindustani 

Gray,  Rev.  G.  B.,  ALA.,  D.Litt.,  Non- 
Collegiate 

Griffith,  F.  LI.,  ALA.,  Queen's,  Reader 
in  Egyptology 


Keith  Jopp,  C.  H.,  AL.\.,  New  College, 
Lecturer  in  Alarathi 

Langdon,  S.,  ALA.,  Jesus,  Professor  of 
Assyriology 

Levy,  R.,  M.A.,  Jesus,  Lecturer  in 
Persian 

Loewe,  H.  AL  J.,  M.A.,  Exeter 

Lovett,  Sir  H.  Verney,  ALA.,  Balliol, 
Reader  in  Indian  History 

Macdoncll,  A.  A.,  ALA.,  Balliol,  Boden 
Professor  of  Sanskrit 

Alargoliouth,  Rev.  D.  S.,  ALA.,  D.Litt., 
New  College,  Laudian  Professor  of 
Arabic 

Alorison,  J.,  M..A.,  Balliol,  Lecturer 
in  Sanskrit 

Simpson,  Rev.  D.  C,  M.A..  B.D., 
Wadham 

Soothill,  W.  E.,  ALA.,  Trinity,  Profes- 
sor of  Chinese 

Stenning,  J.  F.,  ALA.,  Wadham,  Lec- 
turer in  Aramaic 

Walsh  E.  H.  C,  ALA.,  E.xetcr,  Lecturer 
in  Bengali 

8.  Natural  Science 

.^merj-,  G.  D.,  M.A.,  Brasenose 
Applebey,  AL  P..  B.Sc,  ALA.,  St.  John's 
Bailey,  V.  A.,  ALA.,  Queen's 
Balfour,  H.,  M.A.,  Trinity,  Curator  of 

the  Pitt-Rivers  Museum 
Barker,  T.  V.,  B.Sc,  ALA..  Brasenose. 
Lecturer    in    Chemical     Crystallog- 
raphy 
Bell,  H.  C,  ALA.,  Jesus 
Berrisford,  Rev.  E.  A.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Biggs,  H.  F.,  ALA.,  Trinity 
Blackwood,   B.   M..   M.A..   Somerville 

College 
Bosanquet,  C.  H.,  ALA.,  Balliol 
Bowman,    H.    L.,    ALA.,    D.Sc,    Alag- 
dalen,  Waynflete  Professor  of  Aliner- 
alogy 
Brose,  H.  H.  L.  A.,  M.A.,  Christ  Chruch 
Button,  G.  T.,  ALA.,  New  College 
Buxton,     L.     H.     D.,     M.A.,     Exeter, 
Lecturer   in    Physical   Anthropology 
Campbell,  J.  E.,  ALA.,  Hertford 
Carr-Saunders,  A.  AL,  ALA.,  Alagdalen 
Chapman,  D.  L.,  M.A.,  Jesus 
Chattaway,  F.  D.,  ALA.,  Queen's 
Chaundy,  T.  W.,  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
Church,  A.  H.,  M.A.,  Jesus,  Lecturer  in 

Botany 
Dixey,  F.  A.,  D.M..  Wadham 
Dixon,  A.  L.,  ALA.,  Alagdalen,  Wayn- 
flete Professor  of  Pure  Mathematics 
Dodds-Parker,     A.     P.,     B.AL,     AL.\., 
Alagdalen,      Lecturer      in      Applied 
Anatomy- 
Douglas,  C.  G.,  B.Sc.,  D.AL,  St.  John's 
Douglas,  J.  A..  n.Sc,  Al..^.,  Keblc 
Doyne,  H.  C,  ALA.,  Trinity 


254 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 


Dreyer,  G.,  M.A.,  Lincoln,  Professor  of 

Pathology 
Elliott.   E.    B.,   M.A..   Magdalen,   Pro- 
fessor Emeritus 
Ellis,  J.  C.  B.,  M.A.,  Jesus 
Fotheringham,    J.    K.,    M.A.,    D.Litt., 

Magdalen 
Garrod,  Sir  A.  E.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church. 

Regius  Professor  of  Medicine 
George,  H.  J.,  M.A.,  Jesus 
Gill,  E.  W.  B.,  B.Sc,  M.A.,  Merton 
Goodrich,  E.  S.,  M.A.,  Merton,  Linacre 
Professor  of  Zoology  and  Compara- 
tive Anatomy 
Griffith,  I.  O..  M.A.,  Brasenose 
-«aldane.  J.  B.  S..  M.A..  New  College 
Hammick.  D.  LI..  M.A..  Oriel 
Hardy,    G.    H..    M.A.,    New    College, 

Savilian  Professor  of  Geometry 
Hartley.  E.  G.  J..  M.A..  Christ  Church 
Hartley.  H.  B.,  M.A.,  Balliol 
Hart-Synnot,  R.  V.  O.,  M.A.,  St.  John's 
Haselfoot.  C.  E.,  M.A.,  Hertford 
Heathcote,    R.    St. A.,    B.Sc,    D.    M., 

New  College 
Heaton,    T.    B.,    B.M..    M.A..    Christ 

Church 
Hiley,  W.  E.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Hilliard,  E..  B.C.L.,  M.A.,  Balliol 
Hodgkinson,  J.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Hope,  E.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Huxley,  J.  S.,  M.A.,  New  College 
Jenkin,   C.   P.,   M.A.,   Brasenose,   Pro- 
fessor of  Engineering  Science 
Keeble.      F.     W.,      M.A..      Magdalen, 

Sherardian  Professor  of  Botany 
Kirkaldy,J.VV.,M.A.,SomervilleCoIlege 
Lambert,  B..  M.A..  Merton,  Aldrichian 

Demonstrator  in  Chemistry 
Lattey,  R.  T.,  B.Sc.  M.A..  Trinity 
Lennard,  R.  V..  M.A.,  Wadham 
Liddell,  E.  G.  T..  B.M.,  M.A..  Trinity 
Lindemann.    F.    A..    M.A..    Wadham. 
Professor  of  Experimental  Philosophy 
Love.  A.  E.  H.,  M.A..  D.Sc,  Queen's, 
Sedleian  Professor    of  Natural  Phi- 
losophy 
Manley,  J.  J.,  M.A..  Magdalen 
Marett.    R.    R.,   M.A..   D.Sc.   Exeter. 

Reader  in  Social  Anthropology 
Marsh,  J.  E.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Merton,   T.   R..   M.A..   D.Sc.    Balliol. 
Professor  of  Spectroscopy 


Morison,  C.  G.  T.,  M.A.,  Balliol,  Lec- 
turer in  Agricultural  Chemistry 
Morrell,  J.  H..  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Orwin.  C.  S..  M.A.,  Balliol 
Pedder.  A.  L.,  M.A.,  Magdalen 
Perkin.  W.  H.,  M.A..  Magdalen,  Wayn- 

flete  Professor  of  Chemistry 
Pidduck,   F.    B.,   M.A.,  Queen's,  Lec- 
turer in  Applied  Mathematics 
Poole,  E.  G.  C.  M.A..  D.Phil..  New 

College 
Poulton.    E.    B.,    M.A.,    D.Sc,    Jesus, 

Hope  Professor  of  Zoology 
Priestley,  J.  G.,  D.M.,  Christ  Church 
Raikes,  H.  R..  M.A..  Exeter 
Rogers,  L.  J..  M.A.,  Balliol 
Russell.  A.  S..  M.A.,  Christ  Church 
Russell.  J.  W.,  M.A.,  Merton 
Sampson,   C.    H.,    M.A.,    Principal    of 

Brasenose 
Selbie,  Rev.  W.   B.,  D.D.,  Brasenose, 
Wilde  Lecturer  in  Natural  and  Com- 
parative Religion 
Sherrington,  Sir  C.  S.,  M.A.,  Magdalen, 

Waynflete  Professor  of  Physiology 
Sidgwick,  N.  V.,  M.A.,  Lincoln 
Singer,  C.  J.,  D.Litt..  D.M..  Ma?dalen. 
Lecturer    in    the    History    of    the 
Biological  Sciences 
Soddy,  F..    M.A..  Christ  Church.    Dr. 

Lee's  Professor  of  Chemistry 
Sollas.  W.    J.,  M.A.,  University,  Pro- 
fessor of  Geology 
Somerville.  W..  M.A.,  D.Sc,  St.  John's 
Sibthorpian      Professor      of      Rural 
Economy 
Spokes.  P.  S.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Stocker.  W.  N.,  M.A.,  Brasenose 
Taylor,  T.  W.  J.,  M.A.,  Brasenose 
Thompson,  C.  H.,  M.A.,  Queen's 
Thomson,  A.,  M.A..  Christ  Church,  Dr. 

Lee's  Professor  of  Anatomy 
Townsend,  J.  S.  E.,  M.A.,  New  College, 

Wykeham  Professor  of  Physics 
Troup.  R.  S..  M.A..  St.  John's.  Profes- 
sor of  Forestry 
Turner.  H.  H..  M.A.,  D.Sc,  New  Col- 
lege. Savilian  Professor  of  Astronomy 
Walden.  A.  F..  M.A.,  New  College 
Walker.   E.  W.  A..  D.Sc.  D.M.,  Uni- 
versity 
Whitley,  E.,  M.A.,  Trinity 
Wood,  G.  R.,  M.A.,  Merton 


APPENDIX  I 
COLLEGE  FELLOWS  AND  FELLOWSHIPS 

As  explained  in  Chapter  II,  each  College  at  Oxford 
(except  Keble  College)  is  governed  by  a  Head  and 
Fellows.  The  latter  may  be  classified  according  to  the 
kinds  of  Fellowships  which  are  found  in  most  of  the 
Colleges,  as  follows: 

1.  Official  Fellows:  These  are  the  holders  of  Official 
Fellowships,  devoted  ordinarily  to  the  active  educational 
staff  in  each  College,  but  also  tenable  in  many  cases  by 
bursars,  chaplains,  and  other  College  officers.  The  yearly 
emolument  is  from  £200  to  £300,  besides  rooms  rent 
free  and  in  most  cases  an  allowance  for  dinner  in  the 
College  hall.  In  addition,  an  Official  Fellow  receives  a 
further  stipend,  payable  mainly  out  of  the  Tuition  Fund. 
The  length  of  tenure  varies  from  two  years  to  fifteen; 
but  the  holder  may  be  re-appointed.  An  Official  Fellow 
in  most  cases  vacates  his  Fellowship  by  marriage,  if 
occurring  within  seven  years  from  the  date  of  his  elec- 
tion: but  he  is  as  a  rule  eligible  for  re-election  to  the 
vacancy  so  created,  provided  that  there  be  resident 
within  the  College  the  required  number  of  Fellows, 
varying  in  each  case. 

2.  Clerical  Fellows:  In  the  majority  of  Colleges  there 
must  be  at  least  one  Clerical  Fellow,  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  undergraduates  and  due  performance  of 
Divine  JService  of  the  Church  of   England.    At   Christ 


256  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Church  and  Magdalen,  there  must  be  two  such  Fellows. 
At  All  Souls,  Corpus  Christi,  Merton,  New,  and  Wad- 
ham  Colleges,  the  statutes  do  not  require  Clerical  Fellows 
but  provide  that  one  of  the  Fellows  may  hold  the  office 
of  Divinity  Lecturer  or  Chaplain.  The  conditions  of 
tenure  of  Clerical  Fellowships  are  usually  similar  to  those 
of  Official  Fellowships. 

3.  "Prize"  Felloivs:  "Prize"  Fellowships  (often  called 
Non-Official  or  Ordinary  Fellowships)  are  rewards  for 
proficiency  in  various  subjects,  are  given  after  examina- 
tion, and  do  not  ordinarily  carry  any  obligation  to  serve 
the  College  in  any  capacity  (except  in  some  cases  for  a 
short  period,  generally  a  year).  The  yearly  emolument 
is  £200,  besides  rooms  rent  free  and  an  allowance  for 
dinner  in  hall.  The  tenure  is  seven  years.  The  candidate 
must  have  passed  all  examinations  for  the  B.A.  degree, 
and  must  be  unmarried,  and  also  must  not  possess  more 
than  a  certain  specified  income  (generally  £500  per  year) 
from  other  sources.  Prize  Fellows  remain  Probationer 
Fellows  for  one  year;  until  the  expiration  of  that  time, 
or  a  longer  period  in  some  cases,  they  are  not  entitled 
to  take  any  part  in  the  government  of  their  Colleges. 
Financial  reasons  have  limited  the  number  of  these  Fel- 
lowships. 

4.  Research  Felloivs:  Some  Colleges  may  elect  to 
Research  Fellowships  without  examination  persons 
distinguished  in  science  or  letters.  Such  a  Fellow^ship  is 
tenable  on  condition  of  the  Fellow  prosecuting  some 
definite  scientific  or  literary  work. 

5.  Professorial  Felloivs:  College  Fellowships  are  now 
attached  to  many  University  Professorships.  Colleges 
also  may  increase  the  emoluments  of  other  University 


COLLEGE  FELLOWS  AND  FELLOWSHIPS  257 

Professors,  Readers  or  Officers,  by  electing  them  to 
Fellowships. 

6.  Honorary  Fellows:  Most  Colleges  have  powers  to 
elect  distinguished  persons  to  Honorary  Fellowships. 
An  Honorary  Fellow  is  not  entitled  to  vote  in  meetings 
of  the  Fellows  nor  to  receive  any  pecuniary  emoluments: 
but  he  may  be  entitled  to  enjoy  other  privileges. 

In  each  College,  elections  to  vacant  or  to  new  Fellow- 
ships are  by  the  vote  of  the  then  existing  Fellows  entitled 
to  vote.  The  number  of  Fellows  in  each  College  is  fixed 
by  its  statutes,  and  is  not  uniform  among  the  Colleges. 
The  number  of  persons  (excluding  Honorary  Fellows) 
actually  holding  Fellowships,  Lectureships  or  Tutor- 
ships in  the  several  Colleges  at  the  end  of  the  academic 
year  1 920-1 921  appears  in  the  table,  appendix  F;  the 
precise  number  of  Fellows  in  each  case  being  determi- 
nable by  reference  to  the  current  edition  of  the  Oxford 
University  Calendar. 

Most  of  the  actual  teaching  in  Oxford  is  done  by  the 
Official  and  Clerical  Fellows  of  the  several  Colleges, 
through  the  system  of  private  tuition  and  lectures 
described  in  Chapter  III.  The  rest  is  done  by  the  l^ni- 
versity  professors,  lecturers,  readers,  etc.,  who  are  also 
usually  holders  of  College  Fellowships.  It  is  therefore 
true  to  say  that  practically  every  member  of  the  several 
faculties  listed  in  Appendix  H,  is  a  Fellow  of  some  College 
in  the  University. 


APPENDIX  J 

REGULATIONS  GOVERNING  AMERICAN 
RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS 

The  regulations  governing  the  American  Rhodes 
Scholarships  are  revised  from  year  to  year  and  printed  in 
the  annual  Memorandum  of  the  Rhodes  Trust  together 
with  an  application  blank  for  the  use  of  candidates.  The 
main  provisions  remain  essentially  the  same  from  year  to 
year,  but  there  are  annual  changes  in  detail.  Intending 
candidates  should  be  careful  to  get  the  latest  copy  of  the 
Memorandum  in  order  to  make  sure  of  fulfilling  all  the 
requirements.  The  important  parts  of  the  regulations  as 
printed  in  the  Memorandum  for  1922  are  as  follows: 

The  stipend  of  a  Rhodes  Scholarship  is  normally  £300 
a  year,  but  until  further  notice  Scholars  will  receive  a 
bonus  of  £50  in  addition,  making  a  total  of  £350  per 
annum.  A  Scholarship  is  tenable  for  three  years,  subject 
to  the  continued  approval  of  the  College  at  Oxford  of 
which  the  Scholar  is  a  member.  Two  Scholarships  are 
assigned  to  each  State.  Since  the  Scholarship  is  tenable 
for  three  years,  there  will  be  one  year  out  of  every  three 
in  each  state  in  which  there  will  be  no  election.  In  each 
of  the  other  two  years  one  Scholarship  will  be  filled  up  if 
a  suitable  candidate  offers.  For  the  purpose  of  arranging 
the  rotation  of  Scholarships  the  states  of  the  Union  have 
been  divided  into  three  groups  as  follows: 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     259 


B 


C 

Arizona 

Delaware 

Florida 

Idaho 

Louisiana 

Montana 

Nevada 

New  Mexico 

North  Carolina 

North  Dakota 

Oklahoma 

South  Carolina 

South  Dakota 

Utah 

West  Virginia 

Wyoming 


Two  groups  of  states  elect  Scholars  each  year  according 
to  the  following  scheme: 


Connecticut 

Alabama 

Illinois 

Arkansas 

Indiana 

California 

Kentucky 

Colorado 

Maine 

Georgia 

Maryland 

Iowa 

Massachusetts 

Kansas 

New  Hampshire 

Michigan 

New  Jersey 

Minnesota 

New  York 

Mississippi 

Ohio 

Missouri 

Pennsylvania 

Nebraska 

Rhode  Island 

Oregon 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Washington 

Virginia. 

Wisconsin 

For  ig22 

1923 

1924 

1925 

1926 

1927 

A 

A 

B 

A 

A 

B 

B 

C 

C 

:b 

C 

C 

and  so  on  in  regular  rotation.  It  should  be  noted  that  the 
Rhodes  Scholars  are  elected  nine  or  ten  months  before 
they  enter  Oxford.  For  example,  Scholars  were  elected 
for  1 92 1  in  September,  1920;  for  1922  in  December, 
1921 ;  and  so  on.  The  actual  date  fixed  for  the  election  is 
announced  each  year  in  the  Memorandum  of  regulations. 
A  candidate  to  be  eligible  must: 

(c)    Be  a  male  citizen  of  the  United  States,  with  at  least  five 
years'  domicile,  and  unmarried. 


26o  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

(b)  By  the  1st  of  October  of  the  year  for  which  he  is  elected 

have  passed  his  nineteenth  and  not  have  passed  his 
twenty-fifth  birthday. 

(c)  By  the  1st  of  October  of  the  year  for  which  he  is  elected 

have  completed  at  least  his  Sophomore  year  at  some 
recognized  degree-granting  university  or  college  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Candidates  may  apply  either  for  the  state  in  which 
they  have  their  ordinary  private  domicile,  home,  or  resi- 
dence, or  for  any  state  in  which  they  may  have  received 
at  least  two  years  of  their  college  education  before  apply- 
ing. For  each  state  there  is  a  Committee  of  Selection,  in 
whose  hands,  subject  to  ratification  by  the  Trustees,  the 
nominations  rest.  Candidates  must  in  the  first  instance 
be  selected  by  their  own  college  or  university.  The 
method  of  doing  this  is  left  to  each  institution.  The  num- 
ber of  candidates  who  may  represent  an  institution  in  the 
competition  for  any  one  state  is  as  follows: 

Institutions  with  less  than   500   students:    Not  more   than  2 

candidates. 
Institutions  with  from  500  to  looo  students:    Not  more  than  3 

candidates. 
Institutions  with  from  1000  to  2000  students:   Not  more  than  4 

candidates. 
Institutions  with  more  than  2000  students:    Not  more  than  5 

candidates. 

In  accordance  with  the  will  of  Cecil  John  Rhodes  the 
qualities  on  the  basis  of  which  Scholars  are  selected  are: 

(/)    Qualities  of  manhood,  force  of  character,  and  leadership. 
(2)   Literary  and  scholastic  ability  and  attainments, 
(j)    Physical  vigour,  as  shown  by  interest  in  outdoor  sports  or 
in  other  ways. 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     261 

The  ideal  Rhodes  Scholar  should  excel  in  all  three  of 
the  qualities  indicated,  but  in  the  absence  of  such  an 
ideal  combination,  Committees  will  prefer  a  man  who 
shows  distinction  either  of  character  and  personality,  or  of 
intellect,  over  one  who  shows  a  lower  degree  of  excellence 
in  both.  Participation  and  interest  in  open-air  and  ath- 
letic pursuits  form  an  essential  qualification  for  a  Rhodes 
Scholar,  but  exceptional  athletic  distinction  is  not  to  be 
treated  as  of  equal  importance  with  the  other  require- 
ments. 

Each  candidate  for  a  Scholarship  is  required  to  make 
application  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  Selection 
of  the  state  in  which  he  wishes  to  compete,  using  the 
application  form  printed  in  the  annual  Memorandum  of 
regulations,  and  furnishing: 

{a)   A  photograph  of  himself. 

(b)  A  birth  certificate. 

(c)  A  written  statement  from  the  President  of  his  college  or 

university  to  the  effect  that  he  has  been  selected  to 
represent  that  institution  in  the  state  in  which  he  is 
competing. 

(d)  A  record  certified  by  the  Registrar,  or  some  other  respon- 

sible official,  of  the  course  of  study  he  has  pursued  to- 
gether with  his  grades. 

(e)  A   statement   by   himself  of   his  general   activities   and 

interests  at  college,  and  of  his  proposed  line  of  study  at 
Oxford. 

(/)  The  names  of  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  eight  per- 
sons from  whom  further  information  may  be  obtained 
concerning  his  qualifications.  At  least  three  of  these 
must  be  persons  under  whom  the  candidate  has  studied. 

In  the  absence  of  candidates  qualified  to  take  full  ad- 
vantage of  the  Scholarship,   Committees  will  make  no 


262  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

appointment.  Vacancies  so  created  may,  as  authorized 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Trustees,  be  filled  by  the 
appointment  of  Scholars-at-large.  Scholars-at-large  are 
chosen  from  among  the  particularly  strong  candidates 
who  have  failed  to  secure  a  regular  appointment. 

No  restriction  is  placed  upon  a  Rhodes  Scholar's  choice 
of  studies.  He  may  read  for  the  Oxford  B.A.  in  any 
of  the  Final  Honour  Schools,  may  enter  for  one  of  the  so- 
called  Diploma  Courses  in  special  subjects,  or,  if  qualified 
by  previous  training,  may  be  admitted  to  read  for  ad- 
vanced degrees  such  as  the  B.Sc,  B.Litt.,  B.C.L.,  or 
D.Phil. 

Application  in  any  state  should  be  made  through  the 
Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  Selection  for  that  state. 
In  any  case  of  difficulty  in  reaching  Secretaries  of  State 
Committees  candidates  should  write  or  telegraph  to 
President  Frank  Aydelotte  of  Swarthmore  College, 
American  Secretary  to  the  Rhodes  Trustees,  Swarth- 
more, Pa.  State  Secretaries  are  likely  to  be  changed 
from  year  to  year;   those  who  are  acting  in  1922  are: 

Alabama  Addison  White,  Esq.,  Huntsville. 

Arizona  Dean  Frank  C.  Loclcvvood,  University  of  Arizona, 

Tucson. 

Arkansas  President   J.   C.   Futrall,    University  of  Arkansas, 

Fayetteville. 

California  F.  P.  Griffiths,  Esq.,  Balfour  Building,  San  Fran- 

cisco. 

Colorado  Dean  F.  B.  R.  Hellems,  University  of  Colorado, 

Boulder. 

Connecticut  G.   Van  Santvoord,    Esq.,   Yale   University,   New 

Haven. 

Delaware  H.  R.  Isaacs,  Esq.,  207,  Ford  Building,  Wilmington. 

Florida  F.  W.  Buchholz,  Esq.,  Gainesville. 

Georgia  Dean  R.  P.  Brooks,  University  of  Georgia,  Athens. 


AMERICAN  RHODES  SCHOLARSHIPS     263 


Idaho 


McK.  F.  Morrow,  Esq.,  Care  Richards  &  Haga, 

Boise. 
G.  E.  Hamilton,  Esq.,  Western  Springs. 
Professor   L.   H.   Gipson,   Wabash   College,   Craw- 

fordsville. 
Professor  J.  Van  der  Zee,  University  of  Iowa,  Iowa 

City. 
Dr.  Frank  Strong,  University  of  Kansas,  Lawrence. 
A.  Barnett,  Esq.,  Shelby ville. 
Superintendent   G.   C.   Huckaby,   Louisiana   State 

School  for  the  Deaf,  Baton  Rouge. 
Robert  Hale,  Esq.,  First  National  Bank  Building, 

Portland. 
E.  H.  Niles,  Esq.,  925,  Equitable  Building,  Balti- 
more. 
Professor  R.  K.  Hack,  Kirkland  Court,  Cambridge 

38. 
J.  K.  Watkins,  Esq.,  924,  Ford  Building,  Detroit. 
W.  B.  Millen,  Esq.,  Capital  National  Bank,  St.  Paul. 
Professor  A.  G.  Sanders,  735,  Arlington  St.,  Jackson. 
R.  C.  Beckett,  Esq.,  Mobile  &  Ohio  Railway,  Fuller- 
ton  Building,  St.  Louis. 
Professor  H.  G.  Merriam,  University  of  Montana, 

Missoula. 
P.  F.  Good,  Esq.,  613,  Security  Mutual  Building, 

Lincoln. 
Professor  J.  E.  Church,  Jr.,  University  of  Nevada, 

Reno. 
New  Hampshire  Professor   A.    B.    Meservey,    6,    Webster   Avenue, 

Hanover. 
New  Jersey  Professor    R.    M.    Scoon,    Princeton    University, 

Princeton. 
New  Mexico         Vice-President   Charles  E.   Hodgin,   University  of 

New  Mexico,  Albuquerque. 
New  York  Dr.  Augustus  S.  Downing,  State  House,  Albany. 

North  Carolina     Dean  H.  S.  Hilley,  Atlantic  Christian  College,  WU- 

son. 
North  Dakota       G.  R.  Vowles,  Esq.,  University  of   North  Dakota, 

Grand  Forks. 


Illinois 
Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 
Minnesota 
Mississippi 
Missouri 

Montana 

Nebraska 

Nevada 


264 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 
Rhode  Island 

South  Carolina 

South  Dakota 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Utah 

Vermont 
Virginia 

Washington 

West  Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 


OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Professor  Leigh  Alexander,  iii,  South  Cedar  Ave- 
nue, Oberlin. 

Professor  W.  S.  Campbell,  University  of  Oklahoma, 
Norman. 

President  R.  F.  Scholz,  Reed  College,  Portland. 

Professor  L.  A.  Post,  Haverford  College,  Haverford. 

N.  S.  Taber,  Esq.,  50,  South  Main  Street,  Provi- 
dence. 

I.  F.  Belser,  Esq.,  310,  National  Loan  and  Exchange 
Bank  Building,  Columbia. 

IVL  A.  Brown,  Esq.,  Care  Messrs.  BroAvn  &  Brown, 
Chamberlain. 

Professor  H.  M.  Gass,  University  of  the  South, 
Sewanee. 

Professor  H.  Trantham,  Baylor  University,  Waco. 

Professor  B.  H.  Jacobson,  3369,  S.  Highland  Drive, 
Salt  Lake  City. 

J.  C.  Sherburne,  Esq.,  Randolph. 

Rev.  B.  D.  Tucker,  Jr.,  Theological  Seminary, 
Alexandria. 

F.  D.  Metzger,  Esq.,  617,  Tacoma  Building,  Ta- 
coma. 

John  V.  Ray,  Esq.,  1210  Quarrier  St.,  Charleston. 

A.  B.  Doe,  Esq.,  50,  Sentinel  Building,  Milwaukee. 

President  Aven  Nelson,  University  of  Wyoming, 
Laramie. 


APPENDIX  K 
A  SELECT   LIST  OF   BOOKS   FOR   REFERENCE 

I.  The  Examination  Statutes.  Oxford  University 
Press,  American  Branch,  35  West  32nd  Street,  New 
York  City.  Revised  from  year  to  year.  Care  should 
always  be  taken  to  get  the  latest  edition. 

This  volume  corresponds  roughly  to  the  catalogue  of 
an  American  university,  giving  in  "official"  form  a  list  of 
books  required  in  the  various  Schools  and  the  papers 
set  in  examinations.  It  is  indispensable  to  any  man 
planning  a  course  at  Oxford. 

^  II.  General  Information  concerning  admission,  resi- 
dence, entrance  scholarships,  and  examinations  leading 
to  the  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree.  Oxford  University  Press, 
American  Branch,  as  above. 

A  brief  pamphlet  the  purpose  of  which  is  described  in 
its  title. 

III.  Facilities  for  Advanced  Study  and  Research.  Ox- 
ford LTniversity  Press,  American  Branch,  as  above. 

This  pamphlet  contains  information  especially  needed 
by  men  who  wish  to  read  for  the  B.Litt.,  B.Sc,  B.C.L., 
or  D.Phil.  It  explains  the  requirements  for  advanced 
degrees  and  gives  some  account  of  the  courses  offered  in 
various  departments,  together  with  the  libraries  and 
laboratory  facilities  available  for  advanced  study. 

IV.  Oxford  University  Calendar.  (Published  annually) 
Oxford  University  Press,  American  Branch,  as  above. 

Contains  calendar  of  the  year;    lists  of  members  of 


266  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

faculties,  University  officers,  and  professors;  information 
as  to  lectureships,  fellowships,  scholarships,  prizes,  fees, 
degrees,  diplomas,  certificates,  affiliated  colleges,  British, 
Colonial  and  foreign  universities;  class  and  honour  lists 
since  191 1,  honorary  degree  lists,  colleges  with  lists  of 
members,  halls,  non-collegiate  societies,  and  a  list  of 
members  of  the  University. 

V.  Oxford  University  Handbook.  Oxford  University 
Press,  American  Branch,  as  above.  Last  issued  in  1915 
and  now  out  of  print. 

A  compilation  based  on  the  Examination  Statutes  giving 
in  somewhat  briefer  form  the  requirements  in  the  various 
Schools  and  courses.  Copies  now  obtainable  in  various 
university  and  public  libraries  in  the  United  States  are 
rather  misleading  because  of  the  many  important  changes 
in  University  regulations  since  the  war. 

VI.  Oxford  University  Gazette.  Published  by  the  Uni- 
versity at  the  Clarendon  Press  and  obtainable  from  the 
Oxford  University  Press,  American  Branch,  as  above. 

An  official  record  of  the  acts  of  Convocation  and  Con- 
gregation, examinations,  degrees,  etc. 
'   VI I.    Oxford  and  the  Rhodes  Scholarships,  by  R.   F. 
Scholz  and  S.  K.  Hornbeck.    Oxford  University  Press, 
American  Branch,  as  above.    Out  of  print. 

An  admirable  guide  book  for  the  prospective  Rhodes 
Scholar  at  the  time  of  its  publication  in  1907  but  now  out 
of  date.  This  book  is  to  be  found  in  a  great  many  uni- 
versity and  public  libraries,  but  care  should  be  exer- 
cised in  using  it  because  of  the  many  changes  in 
University  regulations  since  the  book  was  last  revised. 

VIII.  The  Rhodes  Scholarships,  by  Sir  George  Parkin. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1913. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  REFERENCE      267 

An  extremely  useful  account  of  the  organization  of  the 
Scholarships  throughout  the  world,  with  excellent  chap- 
ters on  the  Oxford  system  and  Oxford  life  written  by  F.  J. 
Wylie.  Readers  should  remember  that  many  changes  in 
methods  of  selection  and  requirements  of  admission  to 
Oxford  have  been  made  since  the  book  was  written. 

IX.  An  American  at  Oxford,  by  John  Corbin.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  1902. 

This  volume  was  written  before  the  first  Rhodes 
Scholars  came  to  Oxford.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  attractive 
general  account  ever  written  of  undergraduate  life  and 
work  at  Oxford  from  the  American  point  of  view. 

X.  Oxford  and  Oxford  Life,  by  J.  Wells.  Methuen  & 
Co.,  London. 

This  book,  by  the  Warden  of  Wadham  College,  began 
as  a  revision  of  Stedman's  Oxford,  Its  Life  and  Schools, 
but  the  revision  resulted  in  practically  a  new  book  and 
was  published  under  this  title.  It  is  now  probably  the 
best  description  of  Oxford  and  Oxford  life  that  we 
have.  Mr.  Wells,  for  many  years  a  tutor  and  fellow 
of  Wadham  College,  has  written  two  of  the  nine  chapters; 
the  remaining  chapters  are  the  work  of  various  Oxford 
men  and  one  Oxford  woman.  The  titles  of  the  chapters 
are:  I.  Oxford  in  the  Past;  II.  Oxford  in  the  Present; 
III.  Expenses;  IV.  The  Intellectual  Life;  V.  The 
Social  Life;  VI.  The  Religious  Life;  VIL  Aids  to  Study 
at  Oxford;  VIII.  Woman's  Education  at  Oxford;  IX. 
University  Extension. 

XL  Oxford  and  Its  Colleges,  by  J.  Wells,  Methuen  & 
Co.,  London. 

This  book  is  a  companion  volume  to  the  last  by  the 
same  author.    Aside   from   Mr.   Wells'   contribution   to 


268  OXFORD  OF  TODAY 

Oxford  of  Today  this  book  is  probably  the  most  useful 
guide  in  print  for  the  American  who  is  seeking  informa- 
tion to  guide  him  in  his  choice  of  a  college. 

XII.  Oxford — Historical  and  Picturesque  Notes,  by 
Andrew  Lang.   Seeley  &  Co.,  London. 

A  ramble  into  the  highways  and  byways  of  Oxford 
history  and  customs.  The  book  conveys  probably  as  well 
as  any  book  can  the  peculiar  historical  charm  of  the 
University  and  city. 

XIII.  The  Oxford  Stamp,  by  Frank  Aydelotte.  Ox- 
ford University  Press,  American  Branch,  as  above. 

An  attempt  to  formulate  some  of  the  intellectual  re- 
sults of  a  Rhodes  Scholarship,  and  to  apply  certain  Ox- 
ford ideas  to  American  educational  problems,  especially 
social  life,  athletics,  and  the  teaching  of  English. 

XIV.  Cecil  Rhodes,  by  Basil  Williams.  London,  Con- 
stable &  Co.,  1 92 1. 

The  most  recent  and  probably  the  best  all  round  life  of 
Rhodes. 

XV.  The  Last  Will  and  Testament  of  Cecil  J.  Rhodes, 
by  W.  T.  Stead,  1902. 

Valuable  as  an  exposition  of  Rhodes'  aims,  drawn  by 
Stead  from  conversations  with  Rhodes  during  the  years 
when  his  purposes  were  being  crystallized. 

XVI.  Cecil  RJwdes,  by  Ian  D.  Colvin.  London,  T.  C. 
and  E.  C.  Jack,  1912. 

A  brief  but  excellent  sketch  of  Rhodes'  life  and  work. 

XVII.  Record  of  War  Service  of  Rhodes  Scholars  from 
the  Dominions  Beyond  the  Seas  and  the  United  States 
of  America.  Compiled  by  the  Oxford  Secretary  of  the 
Rliodes  Trust,  privately  printed  but  preserved  in  a  few 
American  university  libraries. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  REFERENCE      269 

XVIII.  The  Record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars,  compiled  by 
the  Oxford  Secretary  of  the  Rhodes  Trust  and  pubHshed 
from  time  to  time.    New  edition  expected  in  1922. 

XIX.  The  Oxford  Magazine.  Published  weekly  during 
term  by  the  Oxford  Chronicle  Company,  High  Street. 

An  unofficial  but  authoritative  record  of  the  most 
important  events  in  the  University  week  by  week,  to- 
gether with  editorials,  reviews,  and  general  articles. 
Extremely  interesting  and  valuable  to  the  ex-Rhodes 
Scholar  who  wishes  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  University. 

XX.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  Universities,  London.  H.  M.  Stationery  Office, 
C  md.  1588,  1922.   Price  6s. 

A  careful  study  of  the  present  organization  of  the 
two  Universities,  with  suggestions  for  changes  and  for  a 
subsidy  from  the  Government. 

XXL  The  American  Oxonian.  The  official  magazine  of 
the  Alumni  Association  of  American  Rhodes  Scholars, 
edited  by  C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke  and  published  quarterly 
by  W.  W.  Thayer,  Concord,  N.  H.  Price,  $2.00  a  year, 
10s.  in  England. 

Founded  in  1914  by  Frank  Aydelotte  and  now  (1922) 
in  its  ninth  year.  The  best  record  of  the  intellectual 
results  of  the  Rhodes  Scholarships  in  education,  scholar- 
ship, and  public  affairs.  Among  other  special  numbers 
the  American  Oxonian  has  printed  a  statistical  study  of 
the  record  of  the  Rhodes  Scholars  (January,  1921);  an 
account  of  the  recent  changes  and  regulations  at  the 
University  of  Oxford  (April,  1920);  bibliography  of 
recent  books  about  Oxford  (October,  1921);  and  will 
print  soon  a  full  bibliography  of  books  and  articles  con- 
cerning Rhodes  and  the  Scholarships. 


INDEX 


Abingdon,  174,  176 

Academical  Dress,  239 

Achilles  Club,  158 

Acland,  Sir  Henry,  136 

Addison.  Joseph,  131 

Admission,  39-47 

Undergraduates,  40-45 
Graduate  Students,  45-47 

Advanced  Degrees,  102- 116 
See  also  particular  degrees: 
M.A.,B.Sc.,B.Litt.,D.Sc., 
D.  Litt.,  D.Phil.,  B.C.L., 
D.C.L.,B.M.,D.M.,B.D., 
D.D.,  B.Mus.,  D.Mus. 

Advanced  Standing,  46-47 

Advanced  Students,  46-47 

Advanced  Studies,  Committee 
for,  47,  48,  107 

Agriculture   and    Forestry, 
School  of,  loo-ioi 
Preliminary   Examination, 

60,  64,  100 
Final  Examination,  loo-ioi 

All  Souls  College,  7,  122,  123; 
129 

American  Club,  156-157 

American  Oxonian,  vi,  269 

American     Rhodes     Scholars, 
Record  of,  217-226 

American      Rhodes     Scholar- 
ships,     Established      by 


Rhodes  Will,  History  of, 
208-217 
Regulations  Governing,  258- 

264 
State  Secretaries,  262-264 
American    Universities,    Asso- 
ciation of,  42 
American    University    Union, 

244 
Amherst,  Nicholas,  20 
Anatomy,  see  Medicine 
Ancient   House  of  Congrega- 
tion, 34 
Anglican  Church,  38,  160 
Animal  Physiology  in  Honour 
School  of  Natural  Science, 

77,78 
Anthropology',  School  of  Nat- 
ural Science,  77,  79 
Certificate  in,  54 
Diploma  in,  54 
Arabic,  92 

Archaeology,   in   Literae  Hu- 
maniores,  71 
in     Honour     Moderations, 

62,   69 
Diploma  in,  54 
Architecture,  University,   128, 

178 
Archives,  33 
"Aristocratic"  Colleges,    145 


272 


INDEX 


Arnold,  Mathew,  23,  24,  134, 

139 
Arnold,  Thomas,  16,  23 
Art    Collections,    see   Ashmo- 

lean  Museum 
Arts,  Bachelor  of,  see  B.A.  De- 
gree 
Arts,  Master  of,  see  M.A.  De- 
gree 
Arundel,  Archbishop,  121 
Ashmole,  Elias,  231 
Ashmolean  Museum,  231-233 
Asquith,  H.  H.,  23,  143,  154 
Association  Football,  163 
Astronomy,  School  of  Natural 

Science,  77,  79 
Athletics,  160-172 

Track  and  Field,  163 
Aydelotte,  Frank,  262 

B.A.  Degree,  55-58 

Table  of  Examinations  for, 

246-248 
Fees,  235 

See    also    Honour    Schools, 
Pass  Schools,  etc. 
Bacon,  Roger,  4 
Bacteriology-,  see  Medicine,  3 
Ball,  Sidney,  138 
Balliol,  Sir  John  de,  4 
Balliol  College,  4,  24,  118,  119, 
121,    130,    133,    135,    139, 
140,   142,   143,   145 
Banbur>%  173,  177 
Barham,  122 


Barnato,  Barney,  192 

Barnett,  Samuel,  138 

Barnett  House,  138 

Barnett  House  Library,  231 

Battels,  236 

Baxter,  Richard,  12,  13 

B.C.L.  Degree,  no,  112 

B.D.  Degree,  113-114 

Beagles,  158 

Beaumont,  139 

Bedells,  33 

Beit,  Alfred,  211 

Beit  Librar\%  231 

Benedictines,  9,  37 

Benthan,  Jeremy,  142 

Bentley,  Richard,  21 

Berkeley,  Bishop,  141 

Berkshire,  177 

Bible  Clerkships,  36,  123 

Bibliography,  265,  269 

Bicester,  158,  177 

Bicyling,  177 

Biolog\%  64,  77,  137 

in  Preliminary   Examina- 
tion   in  Natural  Science, 

64.77 
Birkenhead,  Lord,  143 
Black  Friars,  3 
Blackstone,  123 
Blake,  Robert,  129 
Bland,  W.  J.,  154 
Blenheim,  177 

B.Litt.  Degree,  45,  46,  102-105 
Blue,  161 

Half-Blue,  161 


INDEX 


273 


B.M.  (B.Ch.)  Degree,  112 
B.Mus.  Degree,  115-116 
Board  of  Faculty,  48 
Boating,  172,  175 
Bodleian  Library,  5,  6,  13,  95, 

227-228 
Bodley,  Sir  Thomas,  13,  126, 

227 
Bodley's  Librarian,  33 
Bologna,  i 
Bookshops,  178 
Botanical  Garden,  137,  223 
Botanical  Library,  231 
Botany 

in  Preliminary  Examination 
in  Natural  Science,  64,  77 
in  Honour   School  of  Nat- 
ural Science,  77,  79 
in  Pass  school,  99 
Boxing,  163 
Brasenose  College  8,  122,  139, 

146,  147 
Breakfasts,  181,  183 
British-American  Club,     155- 

156 
British  Museum,  228 
Bridges,  Robert,  95,  140 
Broadgates  Hall,  20,  129,  139, 

140 
Bryce,  James  Viscount,  16,  23, 

126,  142 
B.Sc.  Degree,  45,  46,  102-105 
Admission  to  Read  for,  45, 46 
Bull-dogs,  33,  185 
"Bullers,"  33 


BuUey,  Frederick,  25 
Bullingdon,  158 
Burne-Jones,  E.,  24,  140 
Burton,  122 
Butler,  Joseph,  141 

Calvert,  126,  127 

Cambridge  University,  2,  4,  6, 

9,  13,  119,  138 
Campion,  Edmund  125 
Campion  Hall,  37 
Cardinal  College,  8,  125 
Catholics,  8,  131,  160 
Caution  Money,  238 
Cavaliers,  14,  128,  129 
Caxton,  6 

Censor  of  Non-Collegiate  Stu- 
dents, 38 
Certificates,  see  list  p.  54 
Chancellor,  32,  33 
Chancellor's  Court,  242 
Charles  I,  14,  129,  130 
Charles  H,  141 
Chartered  Company,  197 
Chaucer,  5 
Chemistry 

in  Responsions,  59 

in  Preliminary  Examination, 

64 
in  Honour  School  of  Natural 

Science,  77,  78 
in  Pass  School,  99 
in  B.M.  Examination,  112 
Cherwell,  15,  170-173 
Chichele,  Henry,  7,  9 


274 


INDEX 


Chiltern  Hills,  177 

Christ  Church  College,  8,  14, 
18,  21,  122,  125,  127,  129, 
130,    132,    133,    134,   135, 

136,   137,    139,   141.    143. 
145,  146,  149,  229 
Christ  Church  Library,  229 
Church,  R.  W.,  134 
Civil  Law,  Degrees  in 

B.C.L.,  110-112 

D.C.L.,  112 
Civil  War,  14,  129 
Clarendon,  Earl  of,  129 
Clarendon  Press,  95,  233 
Classics,  see 

Honour  Moderations, 

Literae  Humaniores, 

Pass  School, 

Responsions 
Clerk  of  Oxenford,  6 
Clerks  of  the  Market,  33 
Clifton  Hampden,  176 
Clough,    A.    H.    23,    24,    134, 

139 
Clubs: 

College,  152-153. 

University,  153-158 
Codrington  Library,  230 
Colet,  John,  124 
College  Athletics,  162 
College  Clubs,  152-153 
College     Debating    Societies, 

152 
College  Fees,  236 
See  Expenses 


College  Libraries,  229 
Colleges : 

Characteristics,  142-150; 

Definition,  29,  117; 

Government,  35-37; 

Heads  of,  36; 
See  list,  245; 

History,  1 17-150; 

List  of,  245 
Colonial  Club,  157 
Committees  of  Selection, 

See  American  Rhodes  Scho- 
larships, Regulations 
Commoner,  36 

Gentleman,  20 
Commoner's  Gown,  182 
Commonwealth,  15 
Congregation,  34 
Congregationalists,    38,     92, 

160 
Congreve,  Richard,  135 
Convocation,  34 
Coroners,  33 
Corpus  Christi  College,  8,  124, 

127,  134,  136,  149 
Courts,  University,  242 
Cowley,  176 
Cranmer,  8 
Cricket,  164 
Cromwell,  129,  130 
Crystallography, 

in  Honour  School  of  Natural 
Science,  77,  79 
Cumnor,  176 
Curzon,  Lord,  32,  143 


INDEX 


275 


D.C.L.  Degree,  112 

D.D.  Degree,  115 

Debating,  152-155 

Degrees 

Conferring  of,  32,  34 
List  of  Degrees,  53 
Qualifications  for  B.A.,  55- 
58;  M.A.,  103;  B.Sc.,and 
B.Litt.,  102-105;  D.Sc. 
and  D.Litt.,  105;  D.Phil., 
106-110;  B.C.L.,  110-112; 
D.C.L.,  112;  B.M.  (B. 
Ch.),  112-113;  M.Ch., 
113;  D.M.,  113;  B.D., 
113-114;  D.D.,  115;  B. 
Mus.,  115-116;  D.  Mus., 
116 

Delarey,  General,  196 

De  Merton,  Walter,  118,  119 

Demy,  36 

Demyships,  36 

De  Quincey,  140 

Devorguilla,  4 

Dicey,  A.V.,  142 

Dinner  in  Hall,  184 

Diplomas,  see  list  p.  54 

Discipline,  9,  10,  239-241 

Divinity,  see  Theolog>',  B.D. 
Degree;     and     D.D. 
Degree 

D.Litt.  Degree,  105 

D.M.  Degree,  113 

D.Mus.  Degree,  116 

Dominicans,  3,  118 

Donne,  John,  139 


D.Phil.  Degree,  106-110 
See  also  Advanced  Standing, 

4M7 
Dramatic  Society,  157 
Drawing  School,  Ruskin,  232 
Dress,  181;   see  also  Academi- 
cal Dress 
Dr>'den,  138 
D.Sc.  Degree,  105 
Duns  Scotus,  4,  141 
Durham  College,  9,  125 

Economic  History 

in  Honour  School  of  Modern 

Histor>',  86-89 
in   Honour  School  of   Phil- 
osophy, Politics  and  Eco- 
nomics, 98 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Economics  and   Political   Sci- 
ence, 
Diploma  in,  54 
Education,  Diploma  in,  54 
Education,  Oxford  System  of, 

48-52 
Edward  I,  118 
Edward  H,  120 
Edward  HI,  121 
Edward  VI,  126 
Edward  VH,  145 
Edward  the  Black  Prince,  121 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  145 
Eg>'ptian,  92 
Eights,  169-172 
See  Rowing 


276 


INDEX 


Eldon,  Lord,  143 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  129 

Elizabeth,  126 

Engineering  Science,  77,  79 

England,  Church  of,  160 

English 

in  Responsions  58-59 
in  Pass  Moderations,  63 
in  Honour  School,  93-96 
in  Pass  School,  99 

English  Language  and  Liter- 
ature,  Honour  School  of 

93-96 

Entrance  Examinations, 
see  Responsions,  58-59 
also  Admission,  39-47 

Erasmus,  7,  8,  124 

Essayists,  Oxford,  140 

Eton, 146 

Evans,  Sir  Arthur,  123,  137 

Eveleigh,  John,  22,  133 

Evelyn,  John,  16,  130 

Evenlode,  174 

Examination  Statutes,  53,  265 

Examination    System    27,    28, 
51,  65-68 

Executive  Ofificers  of  Univer- 
sity, 32 

Exemptions 

from  Responsions,  41-47 
from   Intermediate  examin- 
ations, 41-47 

Exeter   College,    5,    119,    120, 
136,  139,  143 

Exhibitions,  36 


Expenses,  234-238 
Eynsham,  173 

Faculties,  48,  see  list  p.  249 
Faculties,  Boards  of,  48 
Fees,  see  Expenses,  234-238 
Fell,  Dr.  John,  18,  19 
Fellows  and  Fellowships,   35, 

48, 254-257 
Fencing,  163 
Ferry  Hinksey,  176 
Final  Schools,  65-101 
Financial  Assistance,  36 
First  Public  Examination,  41, 

43.  59-64 
Firth,  C.  H.,  97 
Fleming,  Richard,  7,  122 
Football 

Association  163 

Rugby,  162 
Ford,  139 

Foreign  Students,  41-47 
Forestry,  School  of,  loo-ioi 

Preliminary      Examination, 

64 

Final  Examination,  lOO-ioi 

Diploma  in,  54 
Foxe,  Bishop,  124 
Foxe,  the  Martyrologist,  122 
Franciscans,  3,  118 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  24,  142 
French 

in  Responsions,  58 

in     Intermediate     Examin- 
ations, 63,  64 


INDEX 


277 


in  Honour  Schools 
of  Modern  History,  87 
of  Modern  Languages,  96- 
98 

of  Politics,  Philosophy  and 
Economics,  98 
in  Pass  School,  99, 
in  School  of  Agriculture  and 

Forestry,  100 
Certificate  in,  54 
French  Club,  157 
Froude,  J.  A.  23,  24,  25 
Froude,  R.  H.,  23 

Games,  160-172 

Gardiner,  S.  R.,  24 

Garsington,  176 

Gazette,     Oxford    University, 

266 
General  Board  of  Faculties,  48 
Gentleman  Commoner,  20 
Geographical  Library,  231 
Geography 

in  History  Preliminary,  63 

in  Honour  School  of  Modern 
History,  86 

in  Pass  School,  99 

Certificate  in,  54 

Diploma  in,  54 
Geology,  in  Honour  School  of 

Natural  Science,  77,  79 
German 

in  Responsions,  59 

in    Intermediate    Examina- 
tions, 63,  64 


in  Honour  Schools 

of  Modern  History,  87 
of     Modern     Languages, 

96-97 
of     Philosophy,     Politics 
and  Economics,  98 
in  Pass  School,  99 
in  School  of  Agriculture  and 

Forestry,  100 
Certificate  in,  54 
Gibbon,  20,  21,  142 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  126 
Gladstone,    W.    E.,     16,    23, 

143 
Gloucester  Hall,  20 
Godley,  A.  D.,  22 
Godstowe,  173 
Goldwin  Smith,  23 
Golf,  164 
Gore,  Bishop,  135 
Government 

of  the  Colleges,  36 

of  the  University,  31 
Graduate  Study,  51, 

see  also  Advanced  Degrees 
Great  Plague,  5 
"Greats,"  see  Literae  Human- 

iores 
Greek 

in  Responsions,  58,  59 

in    Intermediate    Examina- 
tions, 60-63 

in  Honour  School  of  Literae 
Humaniores,  68-74 

in  Pass  School,  99 


278 


INDEX 


Greek,  Mediaeval  and  Mod- 
ern, iji  Honour  School  of 
Modern    Languages,   96- 

97 
Green,  J.  H.,  24 

Green,  T.  H.,  135,  142 

Grey  Friars,  3 

Grey,  Lord,  143,  211 

Grenville,  George,  127 

Gridiron  Club,  158 

Grocyne,  William,  7 

Groote  Schuur,  199-200 

Grosseteste,  Bishop,  4 

Groups,  see  Pass  School,  99 

Gymnasium,  163 

Haig,  Lord,  122 
Hakluyt,  Richard,  126 
Half  Blue,  161 
Halls 

Public,  37 

Permanent  Private,  37 
Hampden,  129 
Harrison,  Frederic,  24,  135 
Harrison,  Rev.  Wm.,  11 
Hart  Hall,  20,  129,  139 
Harvey,  Wm.,  130 
Hawksley,  B.  F.,  211 
Heads  of  Colleges,  35 ; 

for  list  see  245 
Hearne,  Thomas,  20 
Hebdomadal  Council,  34,  42 
Heber,  Bishop,  139 
Hebrew 

in  Honour  Schools 


of  Theology,  90 

of  Oriental  Studies,  92 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Henley,  172 
Henrietta  Maria,  129 
Henry  HL  120 
Henry  V,  121,  122 
Henry  VL  122 
Henry  VHI,  125,  126 
Hertford  College,  20,  125  127, 

129 
High  Steward,  Lord,  33 
Hinton,  Waldrist,  176 
Historians,  Oxford,  142 
History 

of  University,  1-28 
of  Colleges,  1 17-150 
History  Preliminary,  63-64 
History,  see  Modern  History, 

Honour  School  of; 
Hobbes,  141 
Hockey,  164 

Hofmeyr,  Jan,  195,  197,  203 
Holy   Scripture,    Examination 

in  60,  61-62 
Holinshed's  Chronicle,  il 
Honour  Classical  Moderations 

(Honour  Mods),    60,    62, 

68 
Honour  Mathematical  Moder- 
ations, 60,  63,  74 
Honour  Schools,  22,  26,  56,  58, 

65-101 
See    particular    Honour 

Schools:  Literae  Humani- 


INDEX 


279 


ores,  Mathematics,  Nat- 
ural Science,  Jurispru- 
dence, Modern  History, 
Theology-,  Oriental  Stud- 
ies, English  Language  and 
Literature,  Modern  Lan- 
guages, Philosophy,  Poli- 
tics and  Economics 

Hooker,  Richard,  13,  126 

Hooper,  John,  8 

Hope  Librars',  231 

Hornbeck,  S.  K.,  ix 

Hough,  19 

Hughes,  Thomas,  134 

Humphrey,  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, 6,  13 

Huxley,  17 

Hyde,  Edward,  129 

Iffley,  176 

Indian  Institute,  230 

In  termediate  Examina  tions,4 1 , 

60-64 
Irish,  5 

Isis,  see  Thames 
Italian 

in  History  Preliminary,  63, 

86 
in  Honour  School  of  Modern 

History  87 
in  Honour  School  of  Modern 

Languages  96-97 
in  Honour  School  of  Philoso- 
phy,   Politics    and    Eco- 
nomics, 98 


Jackson,  Cyril,  133 
Jackson,  Sir  Thomas,  128 
Jacobitism,  19,  20 
James  II,  19,  131 
Jameson,  Sir  Starr,  196,  200, 

211 
Jameson,  Raid,  200 
JefYery,  Francis,  140 
Jesuits,  37 
Jesus  College,    13,    127,    139, 

149 
Jewel,  Bishop,  126 
Jews,  I,  3 
Johnson,  Samuel,  20,  21,  132, 

133 
Jowett,  Benjamin,  24,  25,  142 
Junior  Standing,  41,  43-45 
Junior  Students,  41,  43-45 
Jurisprudence 

Preliminary  Examination,  60 

63,  83-84; 
Honour  School  of,  83-86 

Keble  College,  127,  135 
Keble,  John,  134,  135 
Kenilworth,  177 
Kruger,  Paul,  201,  204 

Laboratories,  see  Honour 
School  of  Natural  Science; 
in  Colleges,  149 

Labour  Club,  157 

Lady  Margaret  Hall,  26,  38 

Landor,  24,  140 


28o 


INDEX 


Lang,    Andrew,    15,    24,    129, 

140 
Lankester,  Sir  E.  Ray,  136 
Latimer,  8 
Latin 

in  Responsions,  59 
in  Intermediate  Examin- 
ations 62,  63 
in  Literae  Humaniores,  68- 

74 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Laud,  Archbishop,  14,  15,  128, 

129 
Laudian  Statutes,  22 
Law 

B.A.  Degree  in 

(see  Jurisprudence),  83-86 
Advanced    Degrees    in 
(B.C.L.andD.C.L.),  no- 
112 
in  Literae  Humaniores,  71 
in  Pass  School,  99 
at  all  Souls  College,  123 
Lawyers,  Oxford,  143,  223-224 
Lectures,  48 
Lecturers,  47,  48,  249 
Letters, 

see  B.Litt.  and  D.Litt.  De- 
grees, 102-105 
Libraries 

Bodleian  Library,  227-228 
College  Libraries,  229 
Special  Libraries,  229-231 
Library   of   Art  and    Archae- 
ology, 231 


Library  of  the  English  School, 
231 

Linacre,  Thomas,  7,  8,  123 

Literae  Humaniores,  Honour 
School  of,  68-74 

Literary  Activities,  Undergrad- 
uate, 159 

Lincoln  College,  7,  121,  122, 
132,  140 

Lobengula,  196-197 

Locke,  John,  127 

Lodge,  139 

Lodging  Houses,  52,  237,  241 

Logic,  62,  67,  68 

Lunch,  183 

Lux  Mundi  Theologians,  135 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  137 

Lyly.  13-  139 

M.A.  Degree,  102 

Macauley,  140 

Magdalen  College,  7, 14,  15,  19, 
21,  24,  25,  122,  123,  124, 
129,  131,  132,  137,  139, 
141,  145,  149,  172 

Magdalen  Hall,  125,  129 

Maitland,  F.  W.,  230 

Maitland  Library,  230 

Manchester  College,  38,  92, 
160 

Mansfield  College,  38,  92,  160 

Mansfield,  Lord,  143 

Marlowe,  13 

Marsh.  Baldon,  176 

Marston,  139 


INDEX 


281 


Martyrs,  8 
Martyrs  Memorial,  8 
Mary,  8,  120,  125 
Maryland,  126 
Masefield,  John,  97 
Mason,  A.  E.  W.,  141 
Matabele,  196,  204-205 
Mathematics 

in  Responsions,  59 

in  Honour  Mathematical 
Moderations,  63,  74 

in  Natural  Science  Prelimin 
ary,  64,  77 

in  Honour  School  of  Mathe- 
matics, 74-76 
Matoppos,  205 
Matriculation,  39,  152 
Maurice,  Frederick  Denison, 

134 
Mechanics  and  Physics.  63,  74 
Mediaeval  and  Modern  Greek, 

96-97 
Medicine,  81-83 

Degrees  in,  (seeB.M.,  B.Ch., 

M.Ch.,     D.M.,    Degrees, 

112-113) 
Members  of  Colleges,  35 
Members  of  University,  30 
Merton  College,  4,  6,  14,  118, 

119,    120,    126,   129,    130, 

140 
Merton  Library,  119 
Merton,  Walter  de,  4,  118,  119 
Mesopotamia,  173 
Methodists,  22,  132, 


Michell,  Sir  Lewis,  211 

Migration,  131 

Migrations,  2,  5 

Military  History  (Pass  School) 
100 

Milman,  Dean,  139 

Milner,  Lord,  143,  221 

Mineralogy,  77,  79 

Mob  Quad,  119 

Moderations 

Honour  Classical  62,  68 
Honour  Mathematical,  63, 

74 

Pass,  63 
Modern  History 

Preliminary  Examinations 
in,  63,  86 

Honour  School  of,  86-89 

in  Pass  School,  99 

Certificate  in,  54 
Modern  Languages 

in  Responsions,  59 

in    Intermediate    Examina- 
tions, 63,  64 

in  Honour  School  of,  96-97 

in  Pass  School,  99 

Certificates  in,  54 
Montgomery,  Robert,  140 
More,     Sir    Thomas,     7,     8, 

124 
Morris,  VVm.,  24,  139 
Moseley,  H.  M.,  136 
Moselikatze,  205 
Mullinger,  9,  11 
Murray,  Gilbert,  97 


282 


INDEX 


Museums 

Ashmolean,  231-233 

Pitt-Rivers,  233 

University,  233 
Music 

Degrees  in  115,  116 

Natural  Science 

in  Responsions,  59 

in  Pass  School,  99 

in  Honour  School  of,  77-81 

Preliminary  Examination  in, 
60,  64,  77 
New  College,  5,  6,   119,   121, 

140,  145,  146 
New  Rush,  189 
Newbridge,  174 
Newman,  J.  H.,  16,  23,   134, 

135 
Nicholas,  Master,  6 
Non-Collegiate  Students 

Men,  37 

Women,  38 
Northampton,  2 
North,  Lord,  126,  127 
Novelists,  Oxford,  141 
Nowell,  122 
Nuncham  Park,  174 

Oglethorpe,  127 

Old  Examination  Schools,  228 

Ophthalmology,  Certificate  in, 

54 
Oriel  College,  5,  22,  23,  24,  119, 
120,    121.    124.    130,    134, 


135,    141,    142,    145,    188, 
191,207 
Fellowships,  22,  23,  24,  134 
Oriental      Studies,       Honour 

School  of,  92-93 
Osney,  176 
Owen,  John,  130 
Oxford    Home    Students    So- 
ciety of,  38 
Oxford  Magazine,  269 
Oxford  Movement,  23,  134,135 
Oxford  Union,  153-154 
Oxford  University 
Government,  31-34 
History,  Ch.  I,  pp.,  1-28 
Legislative  Procedure,  34 
Members,  30 
Officers,  32,  33 
Organization,  Ch  H,  pp.,  29- 

35 
Origin,  i 

Relation  to  the  Colleges,  29 
Oxford    University    Calendar, 

265 
Oxford    University    Dramatic 

Society,  147 
Oxford     University     Gazette, 

266 
Oxford  University  Handbook, 

ix,  266 
Oxford  University  Press,  5,  233 

Palaeography,  108 

Papyrology,  108 

Parkin,  Sir  George,  xii,  211-214 


INDEX 


283 


Parsons,  133 

Pass  Moderations,  60,  63 
Pass  School,  55,  56,  99-100 
Pathology,  see  Medicine,  81- 

83,  112 
Pattison,  Mark,  24,  25 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  143 
Peele,  13 
Pembroke  College,  20,  21,  127, 

129,  132,  140 
Penn,  William,  127 
Pennsylvania,  127 
Persian, 

in  Honour  School  of  Oriental 
Studies,  92 
Peterhouse,  4,  119 
Pharmacology,  see  Medicine, 

81-83,  112 
Ph.D.  Degree,  see  D.Phil.  De- 
gree 
Philosophers,  O.xford,  141-142 
Philosophy 

in  Honour  School  of  Literae 

Humaniores,  68-74 
in  Honour  School  of  Theol- 
ogy 89-92 
in  Honour  School  of  Politics, 
Philosophy  and  Economics, 
98 
Physics 
in  Responsions,  59, 
in     Intermediate     Examin- 
ation, 64 
in  Honour  School  of  Natur- 
al Science,  77-81 


in  School  of  Agriculture  and 

Forestry,  100 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Physiology,  see  Medicine,  81- 
83,  112 
Animal,   in   Honour  School 
of  Natural  Science,  77-81 
Pitt,  William,  126 
Pitt-Rivers  Museum.  233 
Plague,  Great,  5 
Poets,  Oxford,  138-140 
Political  Economy  (See  Eco- 
nomics) 
in     Intermediate     Examin- 
ation, 63-64 
in  Honour  School  of  Literae 

Humaniores,  68-74 
in  Honour  School  of  Modern 

History,  86-89 
in  Honour  School  of  Politics, 
Philosophy  and  Econom- 
ics, 98 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Diploma  in,  54 
Political  Science 
in  Honour  School  of  Literae 

Humaniores,  68-74 
in  Honour  School   of  Mod- 
ern History,  86-89 
in    Honour   School   of    Poli- 
tics, Philosophy  and  Eco- 
nomics, 98 
in  Pass  School,  99 
Diploma  in,  54 
Poor  Preachers,  121 


284 


INDEX 


Pope,  Alexander,  22 

Port  Meadow,  173 

Positivists,  24,  135 

Postmasterships,  36 

Preliminary  Examinations 
(See  Intermediate  Examina- 
tions, 59-64) 
in  Natural  Science,  64-77 
in  Jurisprudence,  63,  83,  84 
in  Modern  History,  63-64, 

86-87 
in  Agriculture  and  Forestry, 

64,  100 
for  Students  of  Music,  115 

Prime  Ministers,  Oxford,   143 

Prince  of  Wales,  145 

Private  Halls,  37 

Prize   Fellowships,    51 

Prize  Scholarships,  51 

Prizes,  51 

Proctorial  Discipline,  239-240 

Proctors,  32,  33,  185,  241 

Professors,  48,  see  list,  249 

Protestants,  8,  13 

Prynne,  130 

Public  Hall,  37 

Public  Health  Diploma  in,  54 

Public  Orator,  33 

Public  School  Colleges,  145-146 

Public  Schools,  145 

Publications,    Undergraduate, 

159 
Pullein  (see  Pullus) 

Pullus,  Robert,  i 

Punting,  172-175 


Puritans,  130 
Pusey,  23,  134,  136 
Pusey  House,  38 
Pym,  129 

Queen's  College,  5,  119,   120, 

121,  131,  137,  147 
Queen's  College  Library,  229 
Quiller  Couch,  141 

Radcliffe,  Camera,  228 
Radcliffe,  John,  231 
Radcliffe  Infirmary,  83 
RadclifTe  Library,  230 
Raleigh,  13,  126 
Ramsay,  Sir  William,  137 
Reade,  Charles,  141 
Readers,  48,  249 
Rebellion,  Great,  129 
Reformation,  8,  125 
Reform  of  1854,  24 
Reform  of  1878,  26 
Religion,  159-160 
Renaissance,  7,  8 
Research,  102-110 
Research  Degrees,  102-110 
Research    Fellowships,    256 
Residence,  52,  54 

(See  separate  Degrees) 
Responsions,  41,  58-59 
Restoration,  18,  131 
Revolution  of  1688,  19 
Rhodes,  Cecil  John,  127,  188- 
210 

At  Oxford,  191-192 


INDEX 


285 


Boyhood,  118 

Death  and  Burial.  205 

Diamond  Miner,  189-195 

Ideals  of,  206-208 

Personal  Appearance,  194, 
201-202 

Political  Life,  193-202 

Will,  208-210 
Rhodes,    Herbert,    190,     191, 

192 
Rhodes  Scholars,  36 

Admission     to     University, 

39-40 

Standing,  40-47 
Rhodes  Scholarships 

Administration  in  America, 
211-217 
Rhodes  Trustees,  211 
Rhodesia,  199,  204-205 
Ridley,  8 
Riots,  2 

River  Sports,  164-175 
Robertson,  122 

Roman  Catholics,  37,  38,  160 
Rooms,   Undergraduates,    182 
Rosebery,  Lord,  211 
Rowing,  164-172 
Royal  Commission,  269 
Royal  Society,  16,  17,  130,  137 
Royalists,  129 
Rugby  Football,  162-163 
"Rugger,"  see  Rugby  Football 
Rupert,  Prince,  129 
Rural  Economy 
in  the  Pass  School,  99 


in  School  of  Agriculture  and 

Forestry,  100 
Diploma  in,  54 
Ruskin,  136 

Ruskin  Drawing  School,  232 
Russian 

in  Honour  School  of  Modern 
Languages,  96-97 

St.  Benet's  Hall,  37 

St.    Bernard's   College,    7,   9, 

125, 

St.  Edmund  Hall,  37,  120 

St.  Edmund,  120 

St.  Hilda's  Hall,  26,  38 

St.  Hugh's  College,  26,  38 

St.  John's  College,  7,  9,  14,  15, 
120,  125,  128,  137,  138, 
139,  147,  149 

St.  Mary's  Church,  6,  18, 
132 

St.  Mary's  Hall,  124 

St.  Mary  of  Winchester,  Col- 
lege of  (See  New  College) 

St.  Michael's  Church,  6 

St.  Stephen's  House,  38 

Sacheverell,  Henry,  131 

Sanskrit 

Honour  School  of  Oriental 
Studies,  92 

Saintsbury,  George,  24 

Sayce,  Professor,  137 

Scholars,  35,  36 

Scholarships,  36 
College,  36 


286 


INDEX 


Prize,  51 

(See  Rhodes  Scholarships) 

Scholz,  R.  F.,  Lx 

School  (defined),  55 

Science  (see  also  Natural  Sci- 
ence), 16,  17,  130,  136,  137 
Degrees    in;      see    Natural 
Science,  and  B.Sc,  and  D. 
Sc,  Degrees 

Scout,  181 

Second  Public  Examination , 
see  B.A.  Degree  and  Pass 
and  Honour  Schools 

Selden,  129 

Senior  Standing,  41-45 

Senior  Students,  41-45 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  137 

Shaftesbury,  Lord  Chancellor, 

143 

Sheldon,  Archbishop,  18 

Sheldonian  Theatre,  18 

Shelley,  24,  132 

Shelley  Memorial,  132 

Sherrington,  Dr.  137 

Shirley,  139 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,   13,   139 

Smith,  Goldwin,  23,  25 

Smith,  Sidney,  140 

Sinodun,  174 

Social  Life,  151-187 

Society  of  Non-Collegiate  Stu- 
dents, 26,  37 

Society  of  Oxford  Home  Stu- 
dents, 38 

Somers,  Lord,  143 


Somerville  College,  26,  38 
South  African  Republic,  200, 

201,204 
South  African  War,  204 
Spanish 

in  Honour  School  of  Mod- 
ern   Languages,    94,    95, 

96,  97 
Special  Libraries,  229 
Special  Subjects,   (see  several 

Honour  Schools) 
Spenser,  13 
Sports,  161-172, 
Sprat,  Thomas,  16 
Spring  Rice,  Sir  Cecil,  143 
Stamford  Schism,  2 
Stamford,  University  of,  2 
Standing,  41-47 

Advanced,  46-47,  107 

Junior,  41,  43-45 

Senior,  41-45 
Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn,  25 
Stanton  Harcourt,  175 
Statesmen,  Oxford,  143 
Steele,  Richard,  140 
Stowell,  Lord,  143 
Stubbs,  William,  24,  142 
Studio  Club,  157 
Surgery,  81-83,  112-113 
Surveying 

Certificate  in,  54 
Swift,  Dean,  22 
Swimming,  164 
Swinburne,  A.C.,  24,  139 
System  of  Education,  48-52 


INDEX 


287 


Talbot,  Lord  Chancellor,  141 
Taylor  Institution,  230 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  129 
Taylorian  Librar\',  230 
Tea,  183 

Teaching  Staff,  48 
Tennis,  164 
Terms,  51,  52 
Terrae  Filius,  20 
Thames,  164-165,  172-175 
Theolog>' 

Advanced  Degrees  in,   113- 

"5 

Diploma  in,  54 

Honour  School  of,  89-92 

in  Pass  School,  97 
Toryism,  19 
Toynbee  Hall,  138 
Track  Athletics,  163 
Tracts  for  the  Times,  23 
Transvaal,  200 
Travel,  183 
Tradescant,  John,  231 
Trinity  College,   9,    120,    125, 
126,    134,    135,    139,    140. 
141,  142,  143,  146,  149. 
Trout  Inn,  173 
Trustees,  Rhodes,  211 
Tutorial  Systems,  49-51,149 
Tutors,  48-51 
Tyndall,  William,  7,  125 

Uflfington,  177 
Undergraduates 

Activities  of ,  151-187 


Admission  of,  39-47 
Advanced  Students,  45-47, 

107 
Bible  Clerks,  36 
Commoners,  36 
Demies,  36 
Exhibitioners,  36 
Junior  Students,  40-42 
Postmasters,  36 
Rhodes  Scholars,  36 
Scholars,  35,  36 
Senior  Students,  42-45 
Standing,  40-47 
Women,  38 
Union    Society    Oxford,    153- 

154 
University  of  Oxford 

Government,  31-35 

History,  1-29 

Organization,  29-35 

Origin,  i 
University,  Archives,  33 
University  Clubs,  151-157 
University  College,  4,  118,  133, 

H3,  146 
Uni\'ersity  Courts,  242-244 
University  Fees, 
See  Expenses 
University  Legislation,  34 
University   Museum,   233 
University    Scholarships    and 

Prizes,  51 
University    Union,    American, 

244 
Unitarians,  38,  92,  160 


288 


INDEX 


Vacarius,  i 

Vacations,  177,  240 

Vale  of  the  White  Horse,  177, 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  129 

Varsity  Sports,  161-172 

Vaughan,  Henry,  139 

Vice  Chancellor,  32,  33 

Vincent's,  157 

Viva  voce  Examinations,  66 

Wadham  College,  13,  127,  128, 
130,  134,  135,  138,  143 

Walking,  175 

Wallis,  Dr.  John,  16 

Wantage,  177 

Wars  of  the  Roses,  6 

Warwickshire,  177 

Waynflete,  William,  7 

Wellesley,  Lord,  143 

Wells,  Joseph,  ix,  T17,  267 

Welsh,  13 

Wesley,  Charles,  132 

Wesley,  John,  122,  132 

Wheatley,  176 

Whitfield,  George,  132 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  134 

Wilde,  Oscar,  24 

Wilkins,  Dr.  John,  16,  130 

Will  of  Cecil  John  Rhodes, 
208-210 


William  of  Durham,  4,  118 
William  of  Ockham,  141 
William  of  Wykeham,  5,  119, 

121 
Winchester  College,  5,  121 
Windrush,  174 
Windsor  Castle,  5 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  7,  8,  14,  124, 

125 
Women  Students,  38 
Wood,  Anthony,  19,  123 
Woodstock,  177 
Worcester    College,    20,     127, 

140 
Worcester  College  Library,  229 
Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  16,  123, 

128,  131 
Wyclifife  Hall,  38 
Wycliffe,  John,  120,  121,  122 
Wylie,  F.  J.,  xi,  40,  211,  234 
Wytham,  173,  175 

Yarnton,  176 

Zoology 

in  Preliminary  Examination 
in  Natural  Science,  64,  77 
in  Honour  School  of  Natural 

Science,  77-81 
in  Pass  School,  99 


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